Better Things
by beware of trips
Summary: Alice never thought she'd want to go back to Riverdale. Never thought impending motherhood would have her face her demons and make amends with those in her past.
1. Chapter 1

Better Things

Alice threw up at 4 am and got sent home early from work.

She ran across the street to the all night drug store while waiting for her taxi and purchased a single item. (She knew it'd make more sense to just call Hal to pick her up, but that would result in too many questions she didn't have the energy to answer.) The single item was placed delicately in a small, brown paper bag and handed to her with a sad smile by the clerk. She flashed her wedding ring at the girl, as if to tell her _I'm a married woman, not a child. Don't pity me._

She crammed the bag at the bottom of her purse. It weighed her down as the taxi pulled up.

After paying for her ride, she contemplated how to tell her boss she didn't want to work the overnight shift anymore. Sure, she volunteered and it was only for eight weeks, but five hours of work didn't even get her $30 in tips. Screw Shelly and her maternity leave; she wanted her day shift back.

But now wasn't the right time to be cursing a new mother. She knew that better than anyone.

She took the stairs two at a time to their third floor apartment. To their one bedroom, one bath with the eat-in kitchen. Far from the large house on Elm Street Hal came from, but also far nicer than the shithole she grew up in on the Southside. Even nicer than the 400-square-foot closet they shared in college. She eased the door open and slid off her sneakers. She crept down the hall to the bedroom and could just make out Hal's sleeping figure in bed, hear his soft snores. Two green eyes lit up from the bed. The damn cat curled up next to him in her spot again.

Carmel only tolerated Alice when Hal wasn't around. She told the cat every so often (as if she understood) that Hal didn't want her. Hal wanted the calico and she'd fought him tooth and nail to get the orange tabby.

"She's just so normal," he complained when they were eighteen and a week from leaving Riverdale for Boston. They stood in the animal shelter in Greendale. "The calico is interesting. Look at those patches."

"Which is what everyone will say," Alice insisted, cuddling the kitten to her chest. The purring against her heart made some small ache in her midsection return, but she brushed the feeling away. "This poor girl is dime a dozen. Next person in here will snatch up the calico."

She won, of course. She often won. She also didn't want to see the upturned nose of Hal's mother should they return to his house with the 'interesting' cat. A simple orange tabby was exactly the kind of cat Alice knew Mrs. Cooper would have chosen. A generic, picture-in-the-dictionary type of cat.

Carmel, soon enough, became Hal's cat. Curling up with him in bed, jumping in his lap the second he sat down, following him to the bathroom, asking him for table scraps. Alice felt like the other woman.

She closed the bedroom door softly and rummaged through her purse for the paper bag. She dropped her purse on the table in the hall and went to the bathroom.

She didn't take a test the first time. She was too scared to go into Riverdale Drugs alone, where anyone could spot her, and her only way to get to the pharmacy in Greendale was a bus or Hal. By the time she decided to brave the bus, she was so far along that she went right to the clinic there. The only pregnancy test she ever took was their second year of college. After she had skipped two periods, after Hal's parents had cut them off and they were both stressed beyond their limit. They went to the store together, hand in hand, and sat on the floor of their tiny bathroom together to wait the ten anxious minutes. She'd cried and he told her things would be different this time. They could do it this time, if that was what she wanted.

That one had come out negative, thank God.

They talked about her maybe going on the pill that night, but it never happened. They stuck to old reliable – condoms most of the time and sheer dumb luck the rest.

She skimmed the back of the box quickly as she peeled off her uniform. This one only took five minutes, but that was still five minutes longer than she'd rather wait. After doing her business and setting the test on the edge of the sink, she turned on the water in the shower as hot as it would go and climbed in.

As a kid, she could never take long, hot showers. You were lucky to get five minutes of decent steam out of the piece of shit hot water heater in her father's home. As an adult, she relished that they could afford a place that allowed her the luxury.

She had well over an hour until Hal would wake up, so she thought nothing of it when the door creaked open. Carmel, she thought, probably annoyed she came home early and ruined her alone time with Hal. She stayed in the shower another five, ten, fifteen minutes, losing track of time. All she knew was that turning off the water and climbing out would mean concrete evidence of what she already suspected. Of what she already knew.

What she didn't expect, as she pulled open the curtain, was her husband leaning against the sink. Stone-faced, arms crossed. That look on his face they always seem to exchange nowadays. Disappointment. She held in her gasp.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, reaching for her towel. "How long have you been there?"

Hal's eyes darted down to the pregnancy test, then back at her. He raised his eyebrows in question but she gave up nothing.

"Slow night," she said, wrapping the towel around her chest, "so I took off early." Sometimes it was easier to pretend everything was normal than face problems head on. She wiped her feet on the bathmat and took a step towards the sink. Hal blocked her. "Move. I just need to…"

He shook his head and readjusted his arms. "Just need to what, Alice?"

She hated how he was able to keep his cool, even when she could see him fuming inside. His voice was steady, but she knew he kept his arms crossed because his hands would be shaking if they weren't.

She vowed to break that calm in him one day.

"Just let me get something." She reached around him, but he unfolded his arms and took her by the shoulders, not letting her get closer. She pushed against him for a few seconds before giving up and letting her shoulders slump. He let go of her and leaned backwards against the sink again.

"Were you going to tell me this time?" he asked, edge creeping into his voice. "Or were you going to blurt it out at another social event? No homecoming, but maybe that wedding in June? Will that work for you, Alice? Instead of just talking to me?"

Her stomach sunk. She swallowed a few times before any words would come out.

"I didn't look yet," she whispered. There was a flash of regret in his eyes, a pang of sadness maybe, as he realized he stole the moment from her. The moment she didn't even want. The moment that should be their moment.

He reached behind himself. "Well, it's positive," he muttered, handing it to her. "Congratulations. You're pregnant."

Her head started to spin. She reached out to take it from him – she needed to see to know it was true – but she lurched forward instead. He dropped the test and grabbed her before she fell, lowering her onto the closed toilet seat. Her head fell between her legs, wet hair spilling towards the floor.

"Fuck," was all that came out between breaths. He touched her back but she bated him away. She extended her hand without looking up and demanded, "Give it here," with a snap of her fingers.

He picked up the test from the floor for her. She whipped her hair as she sat up, spritz of water hitting Hal. With another deep breath, she looked at the pink plus sign staring at her in all its cheery glory.

"Why?" Hal asked. She didn't need him to elaborate. He sounded almost as tired as she was.

 _Why didn't you tell me?_

 _Why are you so upset?_

 _Why don't you want this?_

 _Why are you keeping things from me?_

"We're not ready for a baby," she said simply. She tossed the pregnancy test in the small trash can and gripped her towel tighter as she walked to the bedroom. He followed her.

"So you were ready at 17, but not at 24?"

"I'm not in the mood to fight."

"Bullshit." He took her arm and spun her around. "You're always in the mood to fight."

She dug her nails into his arm and was both annoyed and scared that he didn't even flinch at the action anymore. He just let go of her.

"You didn't want our first accident and I don't want this accident. That's so hard to understand?"

" _Why_?" He ran his fingers through his short hair with such fervor she was afraid he'd rip some of it out. "All you could talk about before we got married was kids. That's all you wanted. You made it a fucking stipulation when we got engaged. Now it's been three years and you _laugh_ every time I bring up starting a family. What… what happened to us not having secrets between us?"

She laughed. "We were kids when we made that promise. Telling each other everything? Life doesn't work like that."

"Marriage is supposed to. Stop treating me like a nosey roommate and treat me like your husband. Stop hiding things from me."

"What am I hiding?" she snapped. "Did I lock the door? Toss out the bag and receipt? If I was hiding it from you I would have taken it at the diner or just waited for you to go to work."

"Oh, so you did it at 5 am because you wanted me in on it?"

Her voice lowered as she tried to calm herself. "I just started having symptoms a few days ago. I haven't been sitting on this for months like…" she trailed off, letting her eyes wander to the ground.

Hal let out a gruff laugh. "Like what, last time? Waiting until you were four months along to let me know?"

She pursed her lips. "Hal, you didn't want him. How do I know you're not going to change your mind about this one too?"

"We were 17. We were two irresponsible kids who had no idea what we were doing. We had nothing and no one was going to help us. Not your dad and not my parents. You're still going to dangle that over my head all these years later? That I wasn't ready to be a dad in high school?"

She groaned, tossing her head back. "Did you do this to me?"

"Do what? Agitate you? That's all I seem to do."

"No, did you get me pregnant?"

"Well, Jesus. I hope it was me."

" _On purpose_ , Hal. Did you get me pregnant on purpose?"

" _What_?" he laughed. "How could I have done it on purpose?"

"Maybe you're the one trying to trap _me_ this time. Your mom kept pestering me at Christmas about having a baby. You're always going on and on about a family. Maybe you've been poking holes in condoms, not pulling out in time, huh? Oh, and what about your boss's party last month? You just had to have me in the car before we went home, didn't you?"

"Oh, like we've never done that before."

"Yeah, but it's normally me initiating it. Maybe you're afraid I'll leave you and you want to keep me here."

"You sound crazy, Alice." He shook his head. "You want to leave? Go ahead and leave. Isn't that what the stash of money in the kitchen cabinet is for anyway, huh? For when you _leave_?"

Her heart raced. Instinctively, she dropped the towel she'd been clutching around her torso. It fell to the ground with a wet thud and she knew immediately the move wasn't quite as sexy as she planned.

His eyes didn't trace her body the way they normally did. He didn't knock her backwards onto the bed and pounce on her like she expected. That's how they almost always ended their fights. A silent surrender to each other's bodies. They discovered long ago that it was easier, and more fun, than exchanging sorrys. Sorry was such an empty word. Sex had meaning.

Hal looked her in the eye, disappointment still written all over his face. "Get dressed, Alice." He left the room.

She pulled on a pair of panties and one of his t-shirts before chasing him barefoot into the kitchen. He was already pushing aside Tupperware containers in the cabinet over the refrigerator. Alice needed a stool to retrieve anything from there, but he did without. He finally pulled out a cigar box nestled inside of a flat 64 ounce container.

No one ever said Tupperware was only for leftovers.

Hal took the top off, but she grabbed the cigar box out before he could touch it. She held it to her chest.

"You were snooping," she accused. "Is that what you spend your nights doing? Digging through my stuff to find dirt on me?"

"Your stuff?" He raised his arms and looked around the kitchen. "This is our kitchen, our home. I don't snoop, Alice. I'm not you. You've been squirreling money away for years. You hid money from your dad in high school, and you're doing it again now. I didn't just discover this. It's been there since we moved in."

She gulped. "It's rainy day money."

"There's a couple grand in there at least. That'd have to be one hell of a rainy day."

She put the box gingerly on the table, but kept her hands on it. "I put a few dollars away after every shift. So we have a little extra something. That's it. And the money I kept from my dad was _my_ money. Money I earned myself. That was the money we used as a deposit on our first apartment. To pay our bills before we found jobs here. To make ends meet after your parents cut you off."

She caught the pain in his eyes. _She_ was the reason his parents cut him off.

"That was years ago, Alice. We have savings, an apartment, steady jobs."

She snorted. "Oh, _we_ have steady jobs. Of course."

"You don't –" His face fell into his hands. "You're not in the Southside anymore. You don't need to squirrel away money for when things get rough. Things won't get rough. It's not about the money."

"God, that is so easy to say when you're the one who makes the money." She drummed her fingers against the wooden box. "You're the one with the career, the health insurance, the nice bonus check every Christmas. I'm the one slinging burgers and shakes to drunk college kids for tips."

"And there's no shame in that! You're clearly making plenty if you're able to hide all this. When have I ever complained you don't make enough money?"

"You don't have to say anything. You're the one who got the job, who's putting their degree to use. I'm nothing."

"Alice, you haven't even looked for a new job in two years. Don't make me feel bad because I found something and you gave up."

She bit her lip and blinked back tears. "Things were supposed to be different by now. I was supposed to be working for a paper or a magazine. I can't even get a decent job. And you expect me to… what? Be a mother?" She choked a sob back. "How can I be a mother to this baby when I couldn't to him? I can't do anything." The tears streamed down her face. Hal's features softened.

"It was his birthday the other day," he said softly. "March 2nd. I guess he's… well, he's seven now."

She swallowed. "I didn't think you remembered. You didn't say anything."

"Neither did you."

She finally took her hands off the box and let them fall to her abdomen. "That was the first day I had morning sickness. I thought it was just a reflex, thinking about him. But it came back the next day. And the next. I feel _exactly_ like I did last time. Nauseous and sore and exhausted."

He approached her and she fought the instinct to grab the box of money again. Hal put his hands over hers. "You could have told me. You should have. This is the kind of stuff we're supposed to do together."

"Loving this baby, wanting this baby, it's not going to make up for us giving our son away. We can't replace him."

"Of course we can't. So we have to do right by this one. We gave him up so we could build our life together. Well, we have it. What else are we waiting for?"

Alice opened her mouth and shut it. She could think of a dozen reasons to wait but none seemed valid.

He moved her hands aside and rubbed his own against her stomach. "Get some rest. Think things over. We can talk about this when I get home."

She nodded with a sigh. Hal kissed her on the forehead before she dragged her feet to their bedroom.

The overnight shift, combined with her stress, had ruined her sleep cycle, but for the first time in a week, she slept a solid eight hours. She briefly woke up when the phone rang, the caller ID coming up with a Riverdale number she didn't recognize. She put her head back down and could faintly hear someone leaving a message on the answering machine in the kitchen.

When she got up three hours later, she followed the noise from the TV into the living room.

"You're home early," she said softly. In her sleepy state she had a hard time remembering if she was mad at him or he was mad at her. Or were they mad at each other?

"I was kind of useless today," he admitted. Carmel sat in his lap and she shot Alice a distasteful look before jumping off. "Took off early."

She lied down on the couch and put her head in his lap. Even eight hours of sleep left her feeling exhausted. He ran his fingers through her hair.

"What are you thinking about?"

She reached up and rubbed his cheek. "That you need to shave. You're not growing a beard under my watch."

"Seriously though. What are you thinking?"

She placed her hands on her stomach. "I'm thinking… that we're going to be parents. Like really be parents this time."

"You're going to be a great mom, Alice."

"God, I hope so." She rubbed her eyes. "It's so weird. I had a dream about home. Like back home. Riverdale."

He laughed. "Don't call Riverdale home. This is our home."

Alice clicked her teeth. "Well, Riverdale was home first."

"We got away from Riverdale because we wanted a new home."

"So what? You never want to go back?"

"Not live back there, no."

She sighed. "Wouldn't it be easier though? To start a family there? Where we could buy a house and have your parents close by."

"My parents close by sounds like the perfect reason not to go back. Since when do you miss Riverdale?"

She shrugged. "I wanted all those nice thing when I was a kid. A yard and a white picket fence and stairs. Raising a kid here in this huge city… I'm afraid it's going to feel so much like that shitty apartment I grew up in."

"It won't. I promise it won't. And there are suburbs here. We don't have to stay in this apartment."

"Riverdale is cheaper."

He let out a frustrated groan. "I keep telling you, it's not about the money, Alice. All I've ever wanted to do was to get you away from the shitty life you had. Going back to Riverdale just feels like a step backwards."

"You wanted to save me? Get me away?" She sat up and shook her hair out. She never dried it after her shower and it had knotted in her sleep. "I wanted to test you. See if you could handle slumming it with me. Living in that tiny, disgusting apartment, away from your mom's home cooked meals and pine scented air freshener."

"And?"

"And I was impressed. You did well. You never complained. Until your parents, found out anyway."

Hal's parents found out they were renting an apartment with their own money instead of dorming. As if having sex and getting pregnant out of wedlock wasn't bad enough, now they were living in sin as well. It took almost two years for his parents to reach back out to them.

"Why was I dreaming about Riverdale?" she asked, trying to change the subject. That morning's fight had been bad enough, no need for another. "That's just bizarre."

Hal regarded her cautiously. "Did you hear the phone before?"

"Oh, yeah. That must be it. It was a Riverdale number."

He shifted uncomfortably. "There's a uhh… a message for you on the machine. I don't know if you want to listen to it though."

"Who's was it? Mary?"

"It… it's about your dad, Alice."

Her dad.

Well, if there was ever a reason to not go back to Riverdale, there it was.

Hal took her hand. "You don't have to listen if you don't –"

"Is he dead?"

"No, but… Alice."

" _Hal_. What did it say?"

"It's not looking too good for him."

"Not looking too good how?"

He pursed his lips. "Do you want to hear it? It's still on the machine."

"I don't know. Do I?" She bit her lip. Hal nodded.

They went to the kitchen together. Hal rubbed the back of his neck as Alice hit the buttons on the machine until she got to the most recent message.

A familiar voice filled her kitchen. Even though she hadn't heard it in over six years, she couldn't mistake it.

"Well, well, well," FP's voice rang. "Alice _Cooper_ now, is it? You are not an easy girl to track down." He sighed. "Look Allie. I wish I was calling with better news. He told me not to call, but shit, he's your dad and you're his only family and I figured I owed it to the both of you -"

She pressed the red button on the machine, deleting the message. She turned on her husband.

"Is he dying or going to prison?"

"He's... he's got cancer. A while now, it seems like. He's under hospice care now."

She nodded. "Ah, well no better than he deserves."

"Maybe you should call him."

She closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly. She opened her eyes and smiled.

"I'm starved. Let's go eat."

"Alice..."

"Hal. The man ruined my childhood. I won't do him the disservice of ruining his death. Now let's eat."

She made a mental note to write down the phone number on the caller ID later.


	2. Chapter 2

Sophomore Year

The yelling upstairs stopped around 10:30, but she didn't knock on his window until it was almost midnight.

FP was lying in bed with a battered X-Men comic after abandoning his school-issued copy of The Outsiders. (He had already seen the movie and the books were never all that different.) When the light knocking came, he gripped the comic in his hand, hoping Fred wouldn't notice the wrinkled cover when he returned it. He crossed his small room and pushed the curtains aside. His upstairs neighbor (also known as his former best friend, his boss's daughter, and the stupid girl he couldn't get out of his stupid head lately) stood outside.

"Alice?" he asked, pulling the window open. He held in a shiver as the February air smacked him. The house had poor insulation as it was and he was already wearing a sweatshirt to bed.

"Help me in," she said, extending her arms. She stood on a milk crate she'd pushed up against the aluminum siding. She was clad in nothing but a pair of jeans and a thin sweater.

"I can just open the backdoor," he muttered, but helped pull her through nonetheless. He resisted shuddering when her icy hands met his. Even though she was skinny as anything, she hardly fit through the small window. (FP hadn't been able to sneak out that window himself since the 6th grade.) She fell through with an unceremonious stumble, his arms the only thing to stop her from falling to the carpet. He let go of her when she found her bearings and watched as she collapsed on his bed with such force the whole frame shook.

"Hey," she sighed, flipping to her back and staring at the ceiling. Her feet dangled over the edge with only a pair of socks on them. He could imagine they were as wet at the hem of her jeans from the snow still outside.

"Hey," he muttered. He shifted weight between his feet before finally sitting cautiously on the bed a few feet from her. "You okay?"

"You heard us fighting before?" Her eyes didn't leave the ceiling but she seemed to know when he nodded. "My dad is such a dick."

FP leaned back and mimicked her pose. "What were you guys fighting about?"

"Nothing important."

"Where'd you go?" he asked. She rolled over on her side so she was facing him.

"What do you mean?"

"I heard the backdoor slam a while ago."

"I was just out in the yard. I was hoping maybe he'd go out and I could sneak back in, but I couldn't take the cold much longer." She quickly leaned over and touched his face. He jumped and shoved her freezing hand off. At the very least, the act put a quick smile on her face.

"Shit, Allie. What's wrong with you?" He jumped off the bed and went to his dresser. "You're so goddamn stubborn. You'd rather freeze than ask for help or say sorry. Take something to wear." He threw her a hoodie and she pulled it over her head. "Where are your shoes?"

"The front hallway. They were muddy." The hoodie was long on her so she brought her knees up to her chest and pulled it down over her jeans as well. He cringed a bit at her wet socks on his bed. "Sneak me out the front door and I can grab them when I leave."

He held out a pair of socks as he sat back down on the bed, a little closer to her this time. She regarded them carefully before pulling off her wet ones and pulling the dry ones up to her knees. "You leaving?"

She nodded. "Once I warm up a little. I should have just gone back to Hal's as soon as my dad locked the door behind me, but your mom saw me come in. She'd ask too many questions if she heard me going out again." She let out another shiver and pulled her arms back through the sleeves to hug herself.

"He's picking you up?"

She shook her head. "I'll ride my bike over."

"For fuck's sake, Allie. It's below freezing. Call him to pick you up."

She rocked back and forth a bit. "No. If I call now his parents will wake up and ask questions. If I just show up, I can sneak through the basement door. The lock is broken." Her rocking hurried and she kept looking down at the bedspread, avoiding his eyes. He inched closer to her.

"What were you and your dad fighting about?"

Her eyes flickered up to him momentarily before falling back to the bed. "I told you, it was stupid. He's in a mood so he just started picking a fight over nothing." Another shiver ran through her and FP picked up a blanket from the bed and tossed it over her shoulders. "I'm so dumb. I should have just knocked on your window in the first place instead of freezing to death outside. I feel cold all the way down to my fucking bones." He was only a few inches from her now and she closed the gap between them to place her head on his shoulder. He resisted the urge to snake his arm around her waist.

"Allie?"

"Hmm?"

"You sure nothing else happened with your dad?" A few choice words had stood out to him as he listened to their yelling earlier.

He didn't need to look down at Alice to know she was chewing on her lip before she answered. "He was going through my room and found some stuff he didn't like."

"Like?"

"Like I'm… I'm not talking about this with you. Sorry. It's too weird."

It wasn't a straight answer, but she more or less gave herself away. "You can stay, if you want. I'll sleep on the couch."

Alice raised her head quickly off his shoulder, looking him in the eye. "No, then _your_ parents will ask questions."

"Like what? You used to sleep here all the time."

"Yeah, when we were kids having sleepovers. When my dad wouldn't come home and your parents had no choice but to watch me. I don't think I've slept in here since the 4th grade."

That was about right. "Okay, how about I check if my parents are asleep yet. If they are, I'll take my mom's keys and drop you off."

Her eyes fell to the bedspread again and she fidgeted with the blanket she was wrapped in. "You'd do that?"

"If I can. Dad was watching TV on the couch before. I'll go out and check if he went to bed."

She mouthed a silent thanks. FP crossed the room and closed the door softly behind him.

His parents were both sound sleepers and his dad had went to sleep early that night. (Something about his back acting up and taking an extra pill.) He walked to the dark, empty living room and counted to thirty before going back to his own room. Alice looked up at him hopefully.

"Sorry, Dad's still on the couch, wide awake," he lied. "James Bond marathon and it doesn't look like it's ending any time soon."

She nodded. "Fantastic. I'll go back out the window." She sighed and took the blanket off her.

"Come on, Allie." He sat back down. "Just stay. I'll sleep on the floor."

"I'm not putting you out of a bed, stupid."

"What? You're going to sleep on the floor?"

She sighed. "I… I guess we can share the bed. We used to do it all the time."

They did used to. Long before words like puberty and virginity and sex were even in their vocabulary.

"We can sleep tops and tails. That's what Fred and I do."

She rolled her eyes. "Waking up next to your face sounds pretty awful, but waking up right next to your _feet_ sounds way worse. I'll keep the pillow between us, just keep your gross feet away from me." She crawled to the head of the bed, dragging the blanket behind her, and cocooned herself against the wall.

"I'll have you know my feet aren't gross," FP muttered, grabbing an extra blanket from his small closet. He almost closed the door, but went back and grabbed an old stuffed dog off the floor. Alice's head was already quite comfortable on his only pillow. "I took a shower just before you showed up."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, face half buried in the pillow. "But when was the last time you clipped your toenails?"

He lied down and stuck the stuffed dog under his head. "Oh, are you supposed to clip those?"

Alice's eyes peeked over the top of the pillow. "You're an idiot. But there are worse things I can imagine waking up next to."

"Like?"

"Like Fred's feet.

He laughed. "I'm not saying you're wrong, but be nice to Fred. He's never done anything to you."

"He told Hal last week that I have the body of a 10-year-old boy."

"Fred just likes giving you shit. You do the same to him."

"Yeah, yeah. Where is he tonight? I half expected him to be here."

"Nah. He had to work and I was waiting for a call from Jillian."

She yawned. "Jillian. Oh please. If you need to jerk off, just take your dirty magazine to the bathroom."

He felt a flush come up his face. He quickly sat up in bed and clicked off the lamp next to his bed. "I was reading a comic book, thanks."

"Sure you were." He heard the smile in her voice even though the room was dark. "Good night, FP. And… thanks. I'll sneak out in the morning."

He fluffed up the stuffed dog and put his head back down. "No rush. Good night, Allie."

She moved a couple of times trying to get comfortable, making the bed emit a few low squeaks. He waited a few minutes after she stopped to turn over and face her direction. (He was always a face-the-wall kind of sleeper.) He peeked over the pillow and, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, he could just make out her face. Eyes closed tight, lips pouted, curly blonde hair spilling over his pillow.

"Allie?" he whispered. Her nose scrunched up, but her eyes stayed closed. "You still awake?"

"Not by choice. What do you want?" Her voice was soft and sleepy, so he kept his as a whisper as he put his head back down.

"Your dad found condoms in your room?" He bit his lip waiting for her to answer.

She let out a tiny laugh that was so different from the contagious giggles she always used in public. "No, stupid." He let out a tiny sigh of relief. "He found some panties I brought at Spiffies. Said were inappropriate for a girl my age, so _obviously_ I'm having sex. Like he has any right to go through my underwear drawer. I think he was looking for cash and just stumbled upon them."

"Were they?"

"Were they what?"

He swished the word around in his mouth. "Inappropriate?"

Her hand came over the pillow and made contact with his chest. He swallowed the momentary pain.

"Jerk," she muttered. "No, they're not. He has no clue what kind of underwear teenage girls wear. Mary brought almost the same ones I did and you know she'd never wear anything remotely inappropriate. He just wanted a fight."

"That… well, that sucks, Allie. I'm sorry."

"S'okay." The pillow pressed down between them so Alice's face was only inches away, looking down at him. His eyes had fully adjusted and he could see her clearly. "Thank God I keep the condoms in my purse. He really would have let me have it if he found those."

"Ah." He kept his eyes locked with hers. She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Is that what you were trying to ask me, Junior? If I'm having sex with Hal?"

"Don't… come on. Don't call me Junior." He let out a small laugh. "Only my folks call me that."

"And only my dad calls me Allie. Don't change the subject."

"Okay, yeah. I was curious."

She nodded and placed her head back down so he couldn't see her face. "Yeah, we're having sex."

He stared into the pillow between them, suddenly really disliking the pattern on his flannel winter sheets. "You never told me. I figured you were still a virgin."

She sat up suddenly, all sleepiness gone from her voice. "I'm so sorry, FP. I didn't know Hal and I were supposed to put out an announcement in the Blue and Gold when we lost our virginities." She rolled over and propped herself up on her elbows, looming over him. "You want the details too?"

"No, it's just… I told you when I lost mine. I thought you'd do the same."

"Because you told half the school when you lost yours. I think even Principal Morton knows you lost your virginity to some senior girl when your made varsity in September."

"Not just any senior. _Sharon Piers_. She's a cheerleader and everything."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Cheerleaders. Yawn. And you don't think she just did it for a laugh? A way to haze the only sophomore on varsity?"

"Shit, if that was hazing, I can't think of a better way. Not complaining. She brought me back to her place every Tuesday for a month straight. It was amazing. Until she started dating some guy who goes to John Adams and ended it."

Alice clicked her teeth. "Gross. You didn't even know her."

"I got to know her."

"She didn't want to be your girlfriend."

He glared at her, suddenly annoyed. "So what? Get it out of your head that sex needs to be all loving and rose petals and candles and bullshit. Maybe it's like that with Hal, but it's not going to be like that with every guy you let in your pants, Allie."

Her expression was as cold as she was when she crawled through his window. She spoke slowly. "Junior. I know you've been hanging around my dad, but if you make another crack about me slutting it up, you'll regret it."

They were in close enough proximity that he knew she could hear his gulp. "I didn't say anything about you being slutty."

"The next guy I let in my pants? As if I'm on the hunt looking for the next nice boy from the Northside to manipulate, right?"

"Stop taking everything so personal. I didn't –"

" _If_ you think that's who I am, then I guess I've spent nearly sixteen years friends with a stranger. You're no better than my dad."

His mouth went dry. "Are we even? Friends anymore?"

She pursed her lips. "Stupid, why wouldn't we be friends?"

"You don't sit with us in lunch anymore. I'm on varsity now and you haven't come to watch practice once. Shit, we were best friends and I didn't even know you lost your virginity."

She fell off her elbows and put her head down on the pillow, looking at him sideways. "Me and Hal eat lunch in the Blue and Gold office. You know that."

"Yeah but you used to eat lunch with me and Fred."

She rolled her eyes. "We eat lunch there so we can work on the paper right after. That way we don't have to stay after school every day. Since, you know, I have track practice after school already."

"And if you didn't have track? Would you wait around and watch practice like you used to?"

"Fuck, I don't know. I don't even like football. I used to wait around for you because I hated going home alone. And it wasn't like I had shit to do otherwise."

"But now you have a boyfriend to do, so you can't hang around me."

Alice reached over and pinched his arm. "I can't help it if I have other obligations now. Colleges look at things like extra-curricular activities. Track, the school paper. Things like that will get me a scholarship and get me out of here. You'd do well to take football seriously so you can get a scholarship too."

"Oh please. You sound like Hal."

"So?" she asked, annoyance seeping into her words. "He and I are going to get out of here together."

"Together?" FP cracked a smile. "It's only half way through sophomore year. You think you're still going to be with him by graduation?"

"You are playing with fire, FP. Cut it out."

"Hey." He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "I just don't want to see you all heartbroken if he dumps you."

"Hal wouldn't do that," she spat. Her eyes darted to his hand but she didn't brush him off. "He loves me."

"Geez Allie. Any guy will say that after you sleep with him."

"He didn't –" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You're an asshole. He told me he loved me _way_ before we had sex."

"Okay, so he told you to convince you to sleep with him."

"It was my idea to – ugh. He does love me and I love him. Maybe I'm being a little optimistic, thinking we're going to be these high school sweethearts and all. But _so what_? The fuck is it to you?"

He squeezed her shoulder before removing his hand. "You're my best friend. That's what the fuck it is to me."

Alice's eyes opened back up. "Fred is your best friend, not me. He's always been your best friend."

"Freddy and I are like brothers. You're my best friend. I'm not yours?"

She shrugged. "I guess Hal is my best friend."

"He's your boyfriend. He can't be both."

"He can. I can tell him anything."

"You can tell me anything."

"Clearly, I can't." Her eyes narrowed. "If I wanted to get judged as harshly as I am right now, I'd just go to church with the Coopers."

FP stiffened. "You can really tell Hal about everything? Your dad and the gang and… everything?"

She regarded him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I can actually. He doesn't care that I'm from here."

"And his family?"

"Oh, fuck his family. If the Coopers wants to buy me cardigans and try to make me into a respectable young lady, let them. I'll sing about the rain in Spain until the cows come home if that's what they want from me."

FP cracked a grin to test the waters. "That's all for naught. There's nothing respectable about you."

Alice closed her eyes again, but a smile crept onto her face. "Damn straight." She nuzzled up against the blanket and few stray pieces of hair fell off the side of the pillow in front of FP. He didn't brush them away. "And for the record, you're totally wrong."

"About what?"

She kept her eyes closed, but the smile grew on her face. "Our first time. No candles and rose petals and all that shit. It was in the front seat of his mom's Impala."

FP pulled a face. "Gross."

"Bench seat." She let out a yawn, but was still smiling. "She let him borrow it right after he got his license in December. We were going to go to the Twilight and see The Princess Bride – you know how much I love that movie."

Of course he knew. She'd dragged him to see it when it came out in 7th grade and teased him mercilessly over how much he liked it.

"But then I was like, let's go to Lovers Lane instead like the juniors and seniors do. Like we're so grown up or something. I had to talk him into it because he has this awful guilt complex about lying to his parents. And then of course I had to coax him into actually have sex when we got there because of course shouldn't our first time be more _romantic_?"

FP's mouth was going dry again. He licked his lips, grateful Alice's eyes were still closed. "Well, shouldn't it have been?"

"Oh God. Was your first time romantic?"

"No, but I wasn't dating Sharon. It didn't need to be romantic."

"Yeah, well romance is what you make of it. We were alone. No parents telling us to keep the door open. No chance of his sister bursting into the room. It was kind of perfect."

"You didn't feel, I don't know… cheap afterwards?"

Her eyes shot open. "Cheap? Because I lost my virginity in a car?" FP shrugged. "But you wouldn't ask Hal that, would you? Because there's nothing cheap about it if a guy losses his virginity in a car. Or in the bedroom of some senior girl he hardly knows. No one would ever accuse him of being cheap." She sat up in bed. "You know what? I'm going to take my chances and go right past your dad. I'll freeze if I have to." She started scooting towards the foot of the bed so she wouldn't have to climb over him.

"No!" FP grabbed out for her and ended up with a handful of hoodie. She stopped and looked back at him. "I didn't mean any of that. Just… just lie back down, yeah?"

Alice stared at his hand until he let go. She lied back down, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the ceiling.

"I don't feel cheap about it," she muttered. "Not then and not now. And not after any of the times since then."

 _The times since then_. "Like how many times since then?"

He knew she was glaring at his ceiling. "Geez. You know, Mary asked me a million questions after I told her, but none were nearly as annoying as the shit you're asking."

FP always pictured Mary as the kind of girl to cover her ears when someone started talking about sex, not the kind to press someone for details, but he kept that to himself.

"You can ask me whatever too, you know."

"I don't _want_ to know about your sexual exploits. Clearly you're the one who's been spending way too much time thinking about Hal and I having sex."

"I haven't been thinking about it. I was just curious."

"Well just ask then." She unfolded her arms and rolled back on her side so she was facing him again. "Jillian was telling everyone in the locker room that you two are sleeping together."

"Well, yeah. We have. Twice." He raised his eyebrow. "Girls have locker room talk?"

"Duh." She rolled her eyes. "How else do we get the scoop on guys? Hermione was giving her so much shit for it."

"Screw Hermione."

"Don't though. Isn't Fred still chasing her?"

"I didn't mean like that," he laughed. "She say anything about Fred? He says he got under her shirt when they went to see Home Alone but I'm not really sold on his story."

"No, that definitely happened. She told everyone how he was taking his sweet time and she eventually just shoved his hands under her sweater."

"Oh man. Yeah, that's Freddy for you. Only guy in the world who can be too nervous and too eager all at once."

"How was it with Sharon?"

"Amazing?" He smiled lazily. "I don't know. She kind of led the way the first time. Kept telling me she wanted to teach me everything. In fact, I don't know how two virgins could have sex and actually know what to do."

"Know what to do?" Alice giggled. Her normal, everyday, contagious giggle. "It's not rocket science; it's human nature. You just kind of figure it out. Together. In fact, I would have been so embarrassed with someone who actually did it before."

"You think blind leading the blind is the way to go?"

"Worked for us."

"Different strokes for different folks, I guess."

She nodded, letting her eyes close again. "I'm glad you had an enjoyable first time with your worldly senior girl."

"And I'm glad you and your boyfriend got to share an awkward first time in the front seat of his mom's station wagon."

"It's actually very spacious." She bit her lip. "But now I can't look at the car without laughing. I think Mrs. Cooper's head would explode if she knew all the sin that went on in there."

"Hey, Allie?" He made a move to reach over and push her hair aside, but decided against it. "You still cold?"

She shook her head slightly. "No, nice and warm. It's actually way warmer here than in my room. Must be the first floor."

 _Or because we're warming up the bed together._

"Hal's house is always crazy warm. Like I always wind up taking off my sweater when I'm there." Her voice was verging on soft and sleepy again.

"Go to sleep, Allie. You had a shitty night."

Her nose scrunched up. "Nah, it wasn't that bad at the end. Just give me a poke if you wake up before me."

"Sure thing."

"You going to tell Hal you spent the night here?"

"Why not?" She stifled a yawn. "He trusts me."

He didn't close his eyes until her heard the slow steadiness of her breath. When he woke up in the morning, she was gone and his bed felt much colder than it had the night before. His copy of The Outsiders sat on his empty pillow with a note sticking out of it.

 **This was jabbing me in the back all night. Do your homework.**

A few stray blonde hairs were still on the pillow underneath. After a quick glance at the window, he laid his head back down, picking up the linger scent of her floral shampoo.


	3. Chapter 3

_"This is Alice."_ _  
"And Hal Cooper. Sorry we can't make it to the phone."  
"Leave a message at the beep and we'll get back to you!"_

 _"Hey Allie. Alice. I left you a message a few days ago, about your dad. Don't know if you got it. It's FP. Give me a call back."_

 _"FP again. Look, I really have to talk to you, Alice. It's about Rodger. This is important. Call me."_

 _"Oh, and happy birthday, by the way."_

 _"Did you really change your name to Cooper? I mean, do you want to be a walking, talking heavy metal joke? Alice Cooper. How'd I never put that one together?"_

 _"Me again. Just answer. Or call me back."_

 _"When I say I can just keep doing this, you know I'm not kidding. Answer the phone."_

 _"He's your father. I know you two had your issues but you're really going to let things go like this? At least pick up the phone and tell him to go to hell or something."_

 _"'This is Alice and Hal Cooper. Sorry we can't make it to the phone. Leave a message and we'll get back to you.' Jesus Christ, you guys can't know how sick I am of hearing that cheery bullshit. Don't worry, this is my last call. I can take a hint. I just didn't want to leave this all in a goddamn message. Your dad is dying, Allie. Dying. And fast. Doctors say it could be a four months or it could be four days. If you won't call me back, at least call him. You always had a mean streak, but I know you're not this heartless."_

 _"Okay, that last message was out of line. Sorry. I know I said I wasn't calling again, but I guess I'm just holding out hope that you're going to change your mind. Take the high road, Allie, and just say good bye to him."_

 _"Hey, Coop. How about you answer the phone, huh?"_

Alice refused to remove the cordless phone from the bedroom, so Hal unplugged the base one day when she was at work. She must have noticed the little red light was off permanently, but she didn't say anything.

 _We can't let these invasive phone calls ruin our lives, but you can unplug the phone so at least I can sleep in peace. I'll pretend I hate when you try and take care of me if you pretend I don't ever need your help._

He loved his wife, but God did she like to make things difficult.

Once upon a time, he wanted to save her. This loud, crass Southside girl with the torn up jeans and the knotted band shirts and the Doc Martens. With the curly blonde hair that ran all the way down her back and the infectious laugh. The girl who scrunched up her nose whenever she was happy, who walked into every room like she owned the fucking place. Hell, would make you believe she did. Who carried around dime bags in one pocket of her worn leather and a roll of cash in the other.

He was so stupid back then, thinking a girl like her ever needed to be saved.

Alice Smith needed someone though. She needed her rock. Someone to listen to her problems, someone to pull her down when she got too ahead of herself, to make her see clarity when she was too caught in the moment. And God was Alice ever caught in the moment. Alice needed a hand on her shoulder. She needed someone to silently clean up her messes, fix her problems and say nil about it after. Sometimes that had meant dragging her out of a high school kegger before she could throw a punch (or throw up all over herself). Other times, that meant making a simple phone call.

Simple. As if anything involving Alice was ever simple.

She was still sleeping when he got home from work, finishing her last week on the overnight shift. The bedside lamp was on and an unopened baby book lay next to her. (Hal was already on his third and Alice had hardly cracked the first.) Carmel lay curled up against her stomach and he couldn't help but smile at his two girls together, finally getting along. The cat had begun clinging to Alice the past few weeks, as if she could detect the little life growing in her. Alice stuck up her nose at the cat's sudden change of behavior, but Hal had caught her on more than one occasion cuddling up to Carmel, returning the affection.

He considered leaning down to kiss his wife, but didn't want to chance waking her up. Instead, he clicked off the lamp and silently closed the door behind him, making his way to the answering machine in the kitchen.

The message today was short, sweet, and directed at him. FP Jones with his silver tongue, using that tone he always used when he was egging someone on. _Hey, Coop. How about you answer the phone, huh?_

Coop. Hadn't FP been the one to start that? Like he could just toss a nickname in the air and hope it'd stick.

The Riverdale number was still scrawled on the notepad next to the phone. Alice's neat print right above it in bold letters. **DO NOT ANSWER**. He rapped his fingers against the wall a few times before he dialed.

One ring. Two. "Hello?"

Hal hit down the receiver and redialed.

First ring this time. "Hello?"

He slammed the phone down again and tried to hold in his smile. He waited thirty seconds before calling back. First ring again. "What the hell –"

Phone down. He took a step back and waited. Ten seconds later, it rang. He picked up on the third ring.

"Cooper residence."

"What the fuck?" FP half laughed. He sounded tired, gruff. "That was annoying."

"Oh?" Hal asked. "I had no idea that'd be annoying."

Pause. "Long time no see, man. How've you been?"

"Fine. Great." Pause again. "You?"

"Fine, yeah. So I guess you guys have been getting my messages."

Hal had the cap of a pen in his mouth with little idea how it got there. He bit down on it hard before answering. "She doesn't want to talk to you."

"This isn't about me. This is about her dad."

"Well she really doesn't want to talk to him."

"Coop. _Hal_. This is stupid. The man's dying and she's going to let him go like that? She hasn't talked to him in how many years? Six? Seven?"

"No, it hasn't been that long." Hal started scribbling on the notepad, franticly making lines around the phone number he'd just dialed. "He called her the morning of our wedding actually." There was a sharp intake of breath from the line. "You still there?"

"Yeah, yeah," FP answered. "I didn't know that. How'd that go?"

Hal dropped the pen. The only part of the paper that wasn't colored in was the phone number. Long distance to Riverdale. "Well, it began with him pretending his invitation got lost in the mail and ended with him calling her a gold-digging cunt. So about how you'd expect."

FP sighed and Hal could almost see him rubbing his eyes. "Fucking Rodger, man. That's him alright."

"Everything he's done to her and you can really sit there and say 'That's him alright?'"

"People don't change. They just get old and frail and sickly and bitter. So either Alice says bye to him or she suffers the same fate. Alice is the queen of getting the last word in. Least I can do is give her that opportunity."

"Ah, so this is all to give Alice closure? How generous of you." He heard a noise from the other room and lowered his voice. "I didn't realize you were her therapist."

"Girl could use one, I'll tell you that much." There was a cough from the line. "How is she anyway?"

Hal stretched the cord to look down the hallway. Carmel was slowly strutting into the kitchen. "Pregnant. She's pregnant."

There was another long pause before FP let out a low, throaty laugh. "Jesus, Coop. Have you two ever heard of this little invention called condoms? They do miracles. Or prevent miracles, depending how you look at it."

"We're married. Married people tend to want babies, plan them. But thanks for the advice."

"Couple years too late for you to take it, but sure. Now did you guys actually plan this or was it another little oops after a night of too many drinks?"

Hal rolled his eyes. "Do you get it? She's in no condition to deal with this kind of stress right now. Her dad or not, she's better off without him."

"She saying this or you?"

"You think I could hide two months worth of messages from her? She doesn't want to say bye to him. She just wants this over with."

Hal jumped as Carmel brushed against his leg. He tried gently nudging her away with his foot, but she took it as a cue to cross between his legs.

"Okay, Coop. Keep your wife in the dark, up in that ivory tower. Treat her like a delicate little flower because she's pregnant again and unable to handle her life. I'm sure she _loves_ that. Just make sure I get an invitation to your funeral."

"You don't send out invitations to funerals."

"I guess you're right. But you know what you do send out invitations for? Weddings." Hal cringed. "I guess mine got lost in the mail for yours, huh?"

"You think I had any part in planning that wedding? If Alice didn't want you there, you weren't coming."

"She's still pissed about some stupid shit I said in high school?"

Hal clenched his fist. He couldn't very well forget that night after graduation. FP and Alice screaming at each other at that party, airing dirty laundry for the whole school to hear. Alice's tears afterwards. Sitting in the car for hours until she calmed down. Hell, he was still pissed about it himself.

"Can you blame her?" he finally asked.

"I – hold on." He heard muffled voices before FP came back on the line. "I have to go. Just talk to your stubborn girl. Please. If anything, I guess I'll see you guys at Fred and Mary's wedding. Doubt Rodger will make it to June, but we'll see." He hung up without saying another word.

Hal hit his head lightly with the phone before putting it back down on the receiver. Carmel let out a small meow and he leaned down to pick her up.

"Who were you talking to?" came Alice's voice. Carmel let out another meow and he dropped her to the floor with a start. He spun around and watched as the cat ran to Alice.

She stood in the doorway of the kitchen, wearing a short silk robe. The one he brought her for Christmas last year. The one she always said made her feel sexy. The sash was knotted at the waist, bringing attention to her slowly growing baby bump.

"Hal," she said more firmly. "Who were you talking to?"

He entertained the idea of lying, but the truth came out of his mouth before he could think of a decent one. "FP."

Her eyes widened. Carmel let another meow and Alice bent down to pick her up before responding. "You answered the phone?"

"I called him," he answered carefully. "He left me a message."

"He's left a dozen messages." Alice held Carmel up to her chest and nuzzled her, an act he never would have seen a few months ago. "You called him back now?"

"Well, he left one directed at me."

She rolled her eyes. "'Coop, answer the phone.' God, you're easily swayed." She started scratching Carmel's chin. "Well, what'd he say?"

Hal shrugged. "Same stuff he's been saying. He thought you might want the last word." Alice looked up at him and raised her eyebrow. "Like… get the last word in before he dies."

"Do I really come off as that bitter?"

"He hasn't seen you in years. And it's not like you two left things on good terms. He doesn't know you anymore."

She tightened her lips and nodded. "I still don't see why you had to call him."

"He's been harassing us, clogging our machine." He walked to her and put his hands on her hips. "I can't have this stressing you out anymore. It's not good for you or the baby."

"I'm _fine_. The baby's _fine_. I'm not stressed. I'm not bitter. I am totally and completely _fine_."

"But –"

"No buts." She gave Carmel a kiss before placing her on the counter. Hal pulled her into a hug. "I am completely at peace."

"Are you?" he asked. She looked up and glared. "I'm serious, Alice. Are you?"

"Yes," she sighed, leaning her head against his chest. "You can't keep doing this, Hal. Stop treating me different. I know I look like a cow already, but I'm not a different person just because I'm pregnant."

He pulled her away slightly so her small stomach was just between them. "You're not a cow. You're just showing earlier because it's your second pregnancy. Your abdominal muscles are weakened and your uterus doesn't shrink back to its original size after your first pregnancy. Most women show at least a month sooner than they did with their first. And at sixteen weeks, you're just about –"

"Oh my God." She pulled away from him and buried her hands in her face. "Hal, if you tell me what fruit our baby is the size of right now, I might hit you."

He bit his lip. "I wasn't. Going to say anything about fruit."

Alice took her face out of her hands. "Really, Mr. Baby Book? I know you think you're an expert on pregnancy now, so enlighten me. I believe it was a lemon sized last week, so it must be a grapefruit now."

"Do you really think the baby grew that much in a week? She's only the size of an avocado right now. Grapefruit is week 22." She glared at him. "I was just going to say…" He trailed off, wondering if this conversation was worth it. Alice crossed her arms and looked at him. His heart started racing. "I was going to say this is around the time you went away before. I missed everything after this. I'm just… I'm excited this time."

"This time," she whispered, looking away. Carmel was still sitting on the counter a foot away, looking at them quizzically. Alice reached out to pet her.

"Come on." He approached her again and put his hands on her shoulders. "You know what I mean. I want to do this whole thing right, be there for everything. What I couldn't do for you last time."

"Last time," she whispered and closed her eyes. She gave a head a quick shake and popped her eyes back open. "Last time is the problem, okay? I just… I need to forget about last time."

"What do you mean forget?"

"We have to pretend to everyone else that this is our first kid. Hell, the girls at work are trying to convince me I'm having twins because I'm showing already. It's just… if we have to pretend with everyone else, why can't we pretend with each other?"

"Alice, between us is the only time we don't have to lie. Why would we pretend?"

"Like we don't do it already?" She shrugged her shoulders and he removed his hands from her. "You keep saying you want it to be a girl. Why? Because if we have a son it's going to feel too much like the one we gave away?" He opened his mouth to answer but she shushed him. "Don't deny it. I want a girl for the same reason. Because I don't want this baby to feel like a replacement."

"And she won't." He placed his hand on her stomach and she shook her head.

"Don't. Don't say she yet. We have four weeks until we find out the sex and you'll jinx it."

"Didn't your therapist say –"

"I don't give a fuck what my therapist said about closure," she snapped. "I know what I need closure to and it's not a baby stupid 17-year-old me handed over to some strangers." She sighed and fell into his chest again. "I think I need to see him, Hal. My dad."

He tensed as he ran his hand up her back. "Don't put this kind of pressure on yourself."

"Too late." She wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled against him, just as Carmel was doing to her earlier. "And I think I should go alone."

"No. You're not taking the train by yourself all that way in your –"

"In my condition? I am _fine_. But you're right. I really don't want to take the train." She sighed. "You're not going with me to see him though. The man's tainted our relationship enough. I don't need him driving more of a wedge between us."

"I don't want him tainting this pregnancy. Upsetting you."

"Too late for that." She broke away, clutching her belly. "The day we find out I'm pregnant is the day we get that first call?" She shook her head. "Sometimes I think I need to just… go back for a while. To Riverdale. You ever get homesick for it?"

Hal pulled a face. "Not really, no." She clicked her teeth.

"Well, maybe I need a reminder of why it was so terrible." She pulled out a chair and took a seat at the kitchen table. "I don't know. It's not like we ever had plans to leave Boston, but I somehow always thought we'd end up back in Riverdale. Now I have this overwhelming need to just… to just _be there_. And I swear," she held up her finger as Hal's mouth opened, "if you're about to say something about nesting or some other stupid pregnancy buzzword, I _will_ throw something at you. Just stop it."

He nodded shortly. "Understood. But it wouldn't _hurt_ for you to read the books too."

She smiled curtly. "Why? I'm married to the leading expert in everything pregnancy related. Maybe _you_ can carry the next one. Deal with the morning sickness and swollen feet and stretch marks."

"You're hormonal."

" _Hal_." She sighed and let her face fall into her hands. He slid the napkin dispenser sitting on the table away from her when she wasn't looking, less she tried throwing it. "Just call your parents. Tell them we're coming to visit. Might as well kill two birds with one stone and tell them I'm pregnant too." She looked up and folded her hands over her stomach. "They'll be thrilled. Another little mistake for them to hold over my head."

"Don't talk like that. They're going to be happy."

"I know, I know. But your mom is going to take one look at me and know this was an accident."

"Who cares? My sister and I aren't even two years apart. I'm sure I was an accident too."

"Oh, no." She stood up and put her hand on his face. "You were your mom's golden child. A gift from the gods. No way were you a mistake." She rubbed her palm against his cheek. "I'm going to start packing. Make sure you shave. Your mom is going to think I don't take care of you or something."

As she walked through the hall to their bedroom, he looked back at the scribbled notepad by the phone.

"Hey," he called to her. "Should you call FP and tell him you're coming?"

Her head slowly came back into view, peeking around the doorframe. "What does _he_ have to do with this?"

"Well," Hal stammered, "I'm sure he's in contact with your dad. Helping him out. Why else would it be him calling?"

She started walking back towards him. "Exactly. You know what it means if he's still in contact with my dad, right?" Hal shrugged. "That means he still has ties with the Serpents. You think I want to be anywhere around that?"

"One doesn't necessarily mean the other."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Trust me, it does. Shame too, because last I talked to Mary she said he and Fred were starting some business or something. I'd hate for him to screw them over, but it's not my place to butt in anymore, now is it?"

He smirked. "Was it ever your place?"

"Absolutely." She clicked her teeth. "FP is still running around with a gang and, mark my words, it'll catch up with him. I don't need him to go see my dad. He'd probably just complicate things. People like him don't change."

"I feel like some quip about small towns breeding small people should be inserted here."

" _We're_ small town, Hal," she said softly, staring him wide eyed. "No matter where you move, I don't think you get to stop being small town."

"We're different. We're not the people we were in high school."

Alice nodded slowly. "I'll pack our bags. Then back to Riverdale."

He picked up the phone and began dialing his parent's number. "To Riverdale."


	4. Chapter 4

Senior Year

FP stomped out his cigarette on the Cooper's front lawn. It wouldn't have been much to toss it in the empty trashcan in front of the house, but the small act of defiance put a smirk on his face. It was February and the grass dead and patchy anyway.

Plus, the trashcans were still out at noon. What would the neighbors think? Hal'd probably get an earful if his folks were home. At least this told him they probably weren't.

He practically skipped up the walkway and held down the doorbell. He could just make out the ringing through the heavy, wooden door. He let go after thirty seconds and started knocking. He could almost see Hal up in his room, probably holding a pillow over his head, trying to drown out the noise. FP would start tossing pebbles from the garden at his window if this didn't work. He knew every which way to get on Hal's nerves and he wasn't giving up easy.

Right before he was about to abandon the door, it pulled open with a start. Hal stood before him, hooded eyed, still in pajamas, short hair sticking at weird angles that was a little too Fred-esque for FP's comfort. FP grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, pushing past him to get in the foyer. Hal didn't seem to have the energy to stop him.

"It's too early for this," Hal moaned, rubbing his eyes. "What do you want?"

FP cocked an eyebrow at him, taking in the Cooper's house. As many times as he'd been here – well, barged in at least – in the past few months, he couldn't get over the greatness of it. It wasn't the largest house in town by far, but it looked like so much detail was put into every little thing. (Hermione's house was pretty decent too, but the Nichols' home had a museum quality to it that made him afraid to touch anything. The Coopers were homey at least.) It was no wonder Alice ran over here every opportunity she got. Maybe if Hal's older sister had been a little more into football players and a little less into cheerleaders, FP would have done the same.

"I need help," FP said, starting up the stairs two at a time. He took in the various family photos on the wall every time he came over, always a little annoyed the only one of Alice was the last one before the second landing. Her in that knock-out blue dress at homecoming. Right before everything had gone to hell. "Get dressed. We need to talk Fred off a ledge."

He heard Hal groan and follow him at a much slower pace. "It's too early for this," Hal repeated. "I was still sleeping."

"It's afternoon already," FP insisted. He went into Hal's room and flopped onto his bed, leaning back on his elbows to watch him. "I spent half the night with Cindy Waltz _not_ sleeping, if you catch my drift. Snuck out of her house, snuck into my house, and slept for just a few hours before my mom threw the phone at my head. Mary telling me we have a Code Raven and need to go save Fred from drowning himself. What the hell are you tired for? You were probably in bed by nine and spent half the night jerking off and crying."

"You know, if you're just here to insult me, you can leave." Hal glared at him, but open his dresser and started pulling out clothes anyway. "Don't act like you actually need my help with Fred."

"Two people, it'll take half the time," FP trailed off, eyes darting to a datebook thrown on the bedside table. Of course Hal had a damn datebook. Must be for his budding social life. "And I need to make sure if he's already drunk, I get him down for a nap so we can play the Valentine's Day dance tonight."

"Code Raven," Hal yawned, turning to face him. "That's something with Hermione?"

"Ding ding ding. Now get dressed. I'm not pulling him out of the frozen lake alone."

Hal rolled his eyes. "If the lake's frozen, he's not falling in now is he?"

"Look, unless you're going to learn to play guitar and sing lead vocals by 7 o'clock, I suggest you get your ass dressed. We're burning daylight."

Hal held his clothes uncertainly. "You going to get out?"

FP smirked. "You're not my type, Coop." Hal just gave his head a little shake and turned his back to him to change. FP grabbed the datebook.

It sat in front of a framed photo of Alice sitting on a cluster of rocks at the beach. Probably taken during that trip she'd gone on with the Coopers to the Jersey Shore last summer. She must have been pregnant already, but with that carefree, happy smile, there was no way she knew yet.

He flipped open the planner to the marked page in February, just noting numbers at the beginning of each week. 33, 34, 35, 36. Meaningless. He flipped to March where the numbers continued, ending with **Alice?** on March 23rd.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Before he could look up, Hal snatched the planner out of his hands. He didn't have much in the way of an explanation of why he'd grabbed the book, what he was looking for. He held the lump that was in his throat. Lucky he could always think on his toes.

"Damn Coop. How many Hail Mary's your mom make you say every time you say fuck in the house?"

Hal's eye twitched. "That's not how Hail Mary's…" He lightly hit himself in the head with the datebook. "Why are you always in my business? Why can't you ever just… just let me be? Leave me alone?"

"We're buds." FP sat up straight in the bed. "I'm looking out for you."

"Oh, we're buds?" Hal let out a harsh laugh. "Every time you come over here, you start, I don't know, snooping? Like you don't have enough incriminating shit on me already, you need to find more."

FP held up his hands in defense. "I was just wondering why someone with no social life has to keep a datebook. An encrypted one at that."

Hal sucked his breath in. "No. Nope. Not doing this with you." He tossed the datebook on his desk and pulled open the door. "Go recuse Fred yourself."

He knew the high road would be to apologize and move on, but he wouldn't be FP Jones Junior if he didn't press a few buttons. He remained on the bed, tilting his head.

"You got her birthday wrong, you know."

No need to say who her was.

Hal stared at him, confused. "Her birthday?"

FP shot up and grabbed the datebook off the desk, opening it back up to March. Hal made no attempt to stop him.

"Her birthday is the 19th, not the 23rd." He extended the open book to Hal, but the boy was just looking at him. "You think nearly three years together and you could get her Goddamn birthday right."

"I know her birthday, jackass." FP nudged the book towards him. Hal glanced down and quickly grabbed it out of FP's hands, as if he was going to pull it away last second.

"Then what's the 23rd?"

Hal's other hand finally fell off the door handle. He sighed and started flipping back pages, handing the book back to FP. It was June of last year, a week in the middle of the month marked with a bold print number 1.

"My parents, they won't tell me anything about her. I keep writing her letters and either my mom is throwing them out or Alice just doesn't want to respond to me. I don't know if she's okay, if the baby's okay, nothing. I don't even know when she's due." He flipped the page to October. "When she told me she was pregnant, she said she was sixteen weeks. So pregnancy is 40 weeks. I traced it back to a day in June. I think it happened the last day of school. Remember Hermione had a party at her place after the bonfire?" He sighed. FP had never seen Hal Cooper this loose lipped without a few drinks in him first. "We were both pretty drunk. It had to be that night. So I went forward from there meaning she's probably due around March 23rd." He shrugged. "Yeah, I know I sound crazy. But her coming back is the only thing halfway keeping my head here. Even if she never speaks to me again, as long as she's back and she's safe and okay, you know?"

FP gave him a sort of half nod, not really knowing what else to say.

Hal sighed. "Does her dad… does he ever talk about her? I don't even know if he's been to see her."

Rodger Smith never talked about his daughter. Hell, he'd hardly been talking to her when she left. The last conversation he'd overheard from them – that night of homecoming hell – had just been a lot of incoherent screaming. Definitely a hit or two. (Reason said it must have been Rodger hitting Alice, but FP had seen the receiving end of Alice's right hook and would never rule her out.) FP had wanted to go upstairs and intervene, but his parents hushed him and told him his life wasn't worth getting between a man and his daughter.

"Unless that's your baby, Junior," his mom said with a stern look. "Then you better haul your ass up there before I blink."

He glared at his mom and took a seat, not moving again until they heard them thundered down the stairs around midnight. Through the front window, FP and his mom just caught Rodger shoving Alice into the cab of his truck. Rodger didn't come home from three days, probably off on a bender. And Alice still wasn't home.

That was over four months ago. Sometimes it felt like yesterday. Other times, it felt like Alice was someone from another life.

Until he saw Hal. Hal was this constant reminder of why his oldest friend was gone. How she'd chosen Mr. Nice Guy, who wound up being Mr. Knock-Her-Up-and-Don't-Take-Responsibility Guy. How some part of him was always going to resent Hal for that. How it didn't matter how bad Rodger had messed up Hal's face after homecoming, FP wanted to do the same to him sometimes. How he was stuck babysitting this depressed wet blanket _for Alice_.

 _But I never asked you do babysit my boyfriend, did I, Junior? And maybe he didn't want this baby, but you know perfectly well his family paid good money to send me to a place that would take care of me. So why don't you back off and let everyone live their own lives and worry about the clusterfuck that's your life, huh?_

You've truly known someone for too long when the voice in your head becomes their voice. He knew those words never actually came out of Alice's mouth, but they might as well have.

Hal touched his arm, breaking him out of his trance. "You okay?"

FP shook his head. "Yeah, fine." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Lets go. Sooner we rescue Fred, sooner this is done."

He took off down the Cooper's stairs and out the front door to his van, not bothering to wait for Hal to put on his coat in the hallway. FP craned his neck and gestured to the garage as Hal finally climbed in.

"The Camaro still in there? Could we take it?"

Hal shot him a look as he buckled his seatbelt. Of course he buckled his seatbelt.

"You think if I could take my own car out I'd ever take a ride from you? My parents will kill me if I touch it. I don't even know what they did with the keys."

FP shifted the van into drive, taking off down Elm Street. "I've seen you hotwire a car before, Coop."

Hal glanced in the backseat suddenly, as if there was someone around to overhear. "That was one time, and that was because Alice needed a favor. I'm not going to hotwire my own car so you can go for a joyride. My parents are likely to sell it if I pull something stupid like that. 'Bad enough you got your girlfriend pregnant, but now you're stealing cars too?'"

"Not stealing if it's your own car."

"Why do I need a car? You show up at my house nearly every other damn day and drag me out on some misadventure in this… this bus of debauchery. Remind me to never sit in the back, by the way. I don't want to figure out what or who all the stains are from."

"Oh, Coop." FP reach over and pinched his cheek, pulling his head away from the window. "Act like you don't love it, but we both know you need that Southside flavor in your life." Hal smacked his hand away. "All moping around and no getting laid makes Hal a dull boy."

"Could you lay off with that?"

"Well could you get laid tonight? Please." Hal clicked his teeth and turned back towards the window. "Man, it's Valentine's Day, or damn near it. Every single girl in school is going to be at this dance tonight more than willing to pounce on the first dweeb who brings them a cup of punch." He back handed Hal's arm. "Tonight _you_ can be that dweeb."

Hal shook his head. "I have a girlfriend."

"Do you?" Hal glared at him. "Really man, do you?"

"I have no idea. Alice told me she doesn't care what I do when she'd gone. She didn't say we're over." He paused for a minute. "You think we're over?"

 _Definitely_. "How would I know? But if she said she doesn't care –"

"That doesn't mean I can sleep with someone else."

"Doesn't it though? What else can that possibly mean? I don't care if you jump into Sweetwater River? No. It means go have fun while I'm incubating our bastard child. Go get stoned and listen to some awesome local band play at the bowling alley. Go shotgun a beer in the parking lot of a school dance. Go… go get into the panties of some lonely sophomore and have a time!"

"That –" Hal titled his head. "Well, that sounds suspiciously like your life."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Well, I think we both know if Alice wanted to be with someone who did the things you do she'd be with, well... you."

FP glanced sideways at him, unable to read Hal's expression. They were just pulling up to Sweetwater River, taking a spot next to Mary's Beetle.

"Maybe Alice would want you to loosen the fuck up." He smiled at him shortly before climbing out of the van. "Lets find Fred."

Hal had to do it. Bring up that unspoken thing. FP did have to admit that a lesser guy than Hal would have cracked years ago. The gentle ribbing people gave him about Alice and FP. The not-so gentle ribbing they gave him about Alice and FP. But Hal always stood there and took it like a champ, laughing it off with the rest of them. Alice and FP were friends. They had that kind of Southside-sticks-together bond that you just wouldn't get if you weren't Southside and didn't know shit about loyalty. They grew up in the same house for Christ sake. They knew each other better than anyone.

Which was why, of course, it was supposed to be Alice and FP together. Hal was supposed to be Alice's place filler. The one she toyed around with while FP sowed his wild oats and did all that fun stuff young men were supposed to do before they settled down. Then it would happen – graduation or something of the like – Alice and Hal would split and FP would have gotten his fill of bachelor life and then the two of them could be together.

He and Alice had never discussed it. He didn't think they ever had to.

And then Alice had to go and get pregnant. (Or Hal got Alice pregnant. FP was still uncertain who was more to blame but he knew he was mad at them both for it.) And maybe it would work in his favor or maybe it wouldn't. Certainly his tough-as-nails little Allie would never want back the guy who didn't want her baby. Who didn't want to man up and take responsibility and marry the girl he'd knocked up.

Hal had asked him so many times over the past few months. Always the same question and always when they were alone.

 _What would you have done in my shoes?_

Marry her. Take her away. Start a family.

Truth be told, he wouldn't do that for any girl. But he would have done it for his Allie. Even if she showed up at that very moment, verging on eight months pregnant with another guy's kid, he'd still do it for her.

He wouldn't tell Hal that though. Instead, he'd laugh it off and answer the same way each time.

 _Fuck if I know._

He glanced over his shoulder at Hal as they walked along the path that led to the water. It Hal wanted to break that unspoken rule, than shit, he could too. He slowed his pace so they were side by side.

"Now, when you say it was probably that night at Hermione's party you can't possibly mean that night she caught you and Alice in her bed?" Hal looked at him in horror, his face turning red. "As in you're trying to tell me that not only did you two give a big old fuck you to party rules by having sex in your host's bed, but you also conceived a child by doing it." He slapped Hal hard on the shoulder, making him stumble forward. "Now that there is some ballsy shit. I didn't think you had it in you."

Hal let out a kind of strangled noise in the back of his throat. "Well, karma's a bitch," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

FP let out a barking laugh that seemed to echo against the frozen water. "Thank God, Coop. I thought your mother was going to come out and you were going to start talking about sin and atonement and all that shit."

"Hey." Hal stopped and grabbed his arm. "You hear that?"

FP listened but didn't hear anything. Too many years of blasting the amps in Fred's garage had probably done more damage than good. He did however see something flying low and hitting the ice way down the river.

"Down there," FP pointed. They walked along the bank of the river until FP could finally hear Fred's voice. They kept walking.

Fred had a bag of golf clubs by his feet from who knows where. He had a small pile of rocks next to him and was attempting to hit them into the frozen river. Attempting, because there were also four empty beer cans at his feet and it seemed to be taking him a few strokes before he actually hit anything. His head was down, staring intently at the rocks by his feet. He might have heard them approach if he wasn't singing at the top of his lungs.

" _I met her in a Kingstown bar. We fell in love I knew it had to end_."

Mary was sitting on a log, hands shoved into her pockets with a sour look on her face. Her long scarf was trailing on the dirt ground next to her, but she looked like she might snap if someone pointed it out. She had a six pack at her feet and two loose beers stacked on top of them. She jumped up when she saw them.

" _We took what we had and we ripped it apart_."

Mary cringed as she grabbed both FP and Hal by the arms and pulled them back a few feet. Fred normally had a great singing voice (joke being that FP couldn't carry a tune and Fred couldn't play guitar for shit, thus why they formed the band together), but his early afternoon buzz had made his voice scratchy and uneven.

"Took you long enough." Mary gave FP a smack on the arm, not questioning why Hal was there too. "He shows up at my house at 11 am on his bike with beer. Beer!"

" _Now here I am down in Kingstown again_."

FP slung his arm over Mary's shoulder, pulling her into a one armed hug. "Come on, Strawberry Shortcake. He doesn't even look that bad. What happened?"

Mary lightly shoved him off and tossed her oversized scarf around her neck one more time. "He went over to Hermione's this morning and she had this huge flower arrangement and box of chocolates from," she glanced quickly at Fred, who still didn't notice they had company, "Hiram Lodge."

" _Everybody's got a hungry heart_!"

FP rolled his eye. "Christ. Can't the girl just dump Fred instead of playing these games?"

" _Everybody's got a hungry heart_!"

"He's just sending her stuff. I don't think she's actually _seeing_ Hiram. But also, I don't have time to care right now. I have to get to school and decorate for this dance before Sierra kills me." Mary crossed her arms over her chest and looked between the two boys. "You got this FP? I'll take Hal with me."

" _Lay down your money and you play your part_."

"No, Hal stays with me." FP put his hand on Hal's arm. "I dragged his sad ass out of bed."

"Can you guys not talk about me like I'm not here?"

" _Everybody's got a_ –"

"Now I'll go shove Fred's sad ass _in_ a bed. I'll make sure Fred gets to the dance on time and looks spiffy."

" _H-h-h-h-h-h-hungry heart_!"

"Shut up!" Mary, FP, and Hal all yelled together. Fred took a swing at the same moment and the golf club went flying out of his hand, landing a good twenty feet across the icy top of Sweetwater River. Fred turned around with a start, face lighting up when he caught a glimpse of the crowd. He ran to them, tossing his arm over Mary. She scowled at him.

"Now, we can start to party! Mary hid my beer. Mare." Fred put his head down on Mary's shoulder, his messy hair grazing her cheek. "Tell them where you hid my beer."

"Fred," Mary's voice came out as a tired whine, "you handed me your beer and told me not to let you drink it all at once. It's right there –"

He turned his head quickly and kissed Mary's cheek, spinning on his heel to the log she'd been sitting on. A blush started traveling up her cheeks. She let out a small cough and adjusted her scarf again.

"I – I'm going to get going." She raised her eyebrow at Hal. "Coming?"

His eyes traveled over to Fred, picking up his beer from the dirt. "I'd take wrestling Fred into a van over Sierra yelling at me over hanging streamers improperly any day, thanks."

"Suit yourself." She lightly squeezed FP's arm. "Be there on time, please? Early even so you're done setting up before everyone gets there. And make sure he's," she jutted her chin towards, "put together. We can't have another bowling alley incident. See you guys." She started running down the path to the parking lot before turning around and yelling, "You better show up tonight too, Hal! It'll be good for you!"

"Bottom's up!" Fred came back extending a beer in either hand with a third tucked into his elbow. They each took them warily. Fred popped open the third can and FP pulled it out of his hand as he raised it to his lips.

"Maybe you've had enough, Freddy," FP said. He shoved his closed can and Fred's open one into Hal's arms, taking Fred by the shoulders and steering him back towards the lake. "Why don't you play a little more? Where'd you get the clubs from anyway, bud?"

"Mary's garage." Fred looked around on the ground for the missing club, seemingly forgetting it was on the ice now. He shrugged and took another one out of the bag. "Her dad hasn't used them in years and she said I need some way to channel my emotions." He swung the club like it was a baseball bat, making both FP and Hal take a step back. "Little does Mary know my emotions are fine. They're awesome. They just want to use this golf club to smash in Hiram Lodge's smug face and maybe break the window of Hermione's car." He smiled brightly at both boys. "But it's healthy to let your emotions out, right?"

"With words maybe," FP said. He grabbed the end of the golf club and forced it down in Fred's hand. He went behind Fred and adjusted his body so he was in the right position to swing. "For now, just keep hitting those rocks." Fred took a swing, missing the rock and loosening up some frozen dirt. "Atta boy. Just keep doing that."

"I know how to play golf, FP," Fred muttered, concentrating on the ground again. He stuck out his tongue as he took another swing. The small rock went flying a few feet onto the ice. "Hermione's dad took me once with her brother-in-laws. Brothers-in-law? Single most horrifying day of my life."

FP took out another club at random. "You know how to play, Coop?"

Hal shrugged. "Enough to know he's probably ruining those clubs by hitting rocks."

"Mary's dad won't miss them," Fred sighed. He took his attention off the ground and placed the club down so he could lean on it. "Hermione's dad though. He'd murder me if he saw me doing this. Say I have no respect for the game. He doesn't like me. Hermione doesn't like me. No one likes me." Fred sighed and leaned down more on the club so it started sliding out from underneath him. FP grabbed him before he came crashing down on the ground.

"Hey, hey," FP said as he pulled Fred up straight. Drunk Fred was slippery and loose limbed, so he kept his arm draped around him. " _I_ like you, Freddy. Mary likes you. Coop likes you too, right?"

Hal held in a laugh with a cough. "Of course I like you, Fred."

"Did Hermione cheat on me?" Fred asked earnestly. "I mean, her and Hiram just kissed. Is that cheating? What constitutes as cheating?"

FP tightened his grip on Fred. " _Yes_ , kissing is cheating. And now this guy is sending her flowers and chocolate for Valentine's Day? And she doesn't even have the sense to hide that shit from you?"

"Well, it got delivered right after I got to her house. She couldn't really hide –"

"Dump her and move on, Freddy. It's Valentines. I will be the ultimate wingman and get the both of you laid at this dance tonight. Hermione is not worth your heartache."

Fred took in a lung full of air. " _Don't make no difference what nobody says, ain't nobody like to be alone_!"

"Stop!" Hal yelled. Fred jumped and wrapped his arm around FP. FP almost laughed at the sight the three of them must me. Him and Fred practically spooning next to the river and Hal attempting to juggle three beer cans in his arms. "Just… goddamn it, Fred. Signing off-key Springsteen never did a thing for anyone, so cut it out."

"But it makes me feel –"

"No! The only thing that'll make you feel better is deciding what the hell to do about Hermione."

"She… she cheated on me."

FP glared at Hal. "Yeah, man. She cheated on him. What more is there to it?"

Hal's eyes narrowed. "Really? Kissing someone else is cheating? You know, some guy kissed Alice once at a party once we were already together. A friend of hers, of all people. And I didn't consider it cheating."

FP bit the inside of his cheek to keep his face straight, but Fred saved him by laughing.

"But man, that is so Alice," Fred said, slapping FP's side. "Like you just know she's into kinky shit like that. Making out with someone else to get you jealous. I bet she asks you to spank her in bed. Oh! Tell me she's into choking. Weren't we just talking about that, FP? That is anyone was into getting choked it would be – ow!" FP took his boot off of Fred's sneaker. "Why the hell did you step on my foot?"

"Shut up," FP hissed in his ear.

Fred looked back and forth between FP pressed into his side and Hal standing in front of them, glaring. After a few moments, Fred finally cracked a grin.

"I notice you're not denying anything, Hal," he said. He turned his head back towards FP and loud whispered, "I knew Alice was kinky in bed."

Hal finally dropped the three beer cans. The open one fizzled, spraying beer on all three of their jeans, but none of them moved aside. "I'm going back to the van."

"Wait!" FP yelled, locking his arms into Fred's. Hal turned back around. "Grab the golf bag. I'm going to have to half carry him."

Hal rolled his eyes, but grabbed the bag anyway. He picked up the rest of the six-pack too and held it out to Fred, just pulling his arm back as Fred reached for it.

"You're not opening another one," Hal said sternly. "You got it?" Fred gave him a little salute before he handed the beer over. "You're an idiot when you're drunk."

"Hermione says I'm an idiot on the best of days," Fred sighed. He started slouching as they walked back to the van and FP tugged him up by his belt. "Alice says that too, so maybe it's true."

"It is," Hal muttered, adjusting the weight of the golf bag to his other shoulder.

"Man, we have a lot in common," Fred said with a small grin on his face. His voice became sing-songy. "You like bitchy blondes and I like bitchy brunettes. And now we're both down girls."

FP shook Fred slightly. "No worries, Freddy. I'm the only bitchy brunette you need."

"Man, I miss Alice," Fred sighed. "Like, I didn't think I'd miss her this much, but I do. You miss her, Hal?

Hal was staring down at his feet, not unlike Fred by the river. "Of course," he said shortly.

Fred snorted. "No need to ask if you miss her, FP."

 _Not now, Freddy. Please not now_.

Hal looked up at him, but didn't say anything. Thank God. So as long as Fred –

"You guys really gotta hash it all out one day," Fred yawned, slumping against FP. "It's kind of weird, you both being in love with her. I mean, there are so many other –"

"Hey Fred," Hal said suddenly. Something caught in FP's throat. "Shut the fuck up."

Fred yawned again as they approached the van. "Geez man, I didn't ask for someone to be Alice's bitchy blonde replacement too. I'm just messing with you." FP opened the back door and grabbed the beer from Fred as he jumped in. He collapsed into the backseat as FP slammed the door closed. He let out a small sigh before he turned to Hal.

"Coop…"

Hal held up his hands. "Drop it. Just drop it. We don't need to talk about it."

FP considered him for a moment before shutting his mouth. He tossed the keys to Hal and pulled a can off the six-pack. "You drive. I need a beer."


	5. Chapter 5

After ten minutes of listening to Carmel cry, Alice reached into the backseat and opened the door of her carrier.

"You'll never get her back in there," Hal muttered, not taking his eyes off the road. Carmel quickly jumped out and hopped to the front seat. She looked between the two of them for a moment before cautiously settling on Alice's lap. She started scratching the cat's chin as Carmel gently kneaded her skirt.

"She doesn't need to be in the carrier. She'll stay on me." Carmel's head nudged against her midsection and she felt the butterflies fluttering in her belly. _She's moving_. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"My mother's going to hate that we brought her."

"Tough shit on your mother. We were not about to trust our neighbors to feed her." She narrowed her eyes even though Hal wasn't looking at her. "Carmel's not staying in the basement. She's staying in your old room with us, right?" Hal pressed his lips together. " _Hal_."

"I'll talk to my mom," he said simply. "Come on. You know how she feels about… pets."

Alice smacked his arm. "She's _your_ cat. I swear you pay more attention to her than you do me half the time. Yet you'd let her stay in a basement –"

"It's a finished basement. And it's nearly the size of our apartment. You really think she'd care? She's a cat."

"She's _our_ cat. She sleeps with us."

"Alice –"

"Hal. She sleeps upstairs. With us. End of story."

His eyes darted sideways at her before looking back to the road. "Yeah. She sleeps with us. My mom will understand." And she knew the exact argument Hal would use with her. _She's pregnant, Mom. Just let her have this._ His hand reached over and fell onto her belly, giving her a rub. "And you know I never pay more attention to the cat than to you. Don't be ridiculous."

"Uh huh."

Carmel stretched her neck out so she was grazing Hal's hand. He quickly pat her on the head before putting his hand back on the steering wheel.

"Why don't you go to sleep? It's a long drive."

She stifled a yawn. Despite the full night of rest she got, she was still exhausted. "No, we can take turns driving."

"It's only a few hours. I've got this, Alice. Go to sleep."

"But –"

"Just let me do this, okay?"

Alice pursed her lips, but nodded, grabbing her sunglasses off the visor. She tried to remember if she was this tired last time. Sure, maybe she'd had a bit more energy at 17 than at 25. And maybe she didn't pull 40 hours weeks on her feet back then, shuffling trays of food and scalding coffee to and fro, but it hadn't exactly been a vacation at The Sisters. The girls woke at the crack of dawn and were put to work. (They didn't call it a life of servitude for nothing.) The junkies and the trouble makers had it the worst; weeding the garden and wiping down windows and scrubbing the floors that always looked dusty no matter how often they were cleaned. Alice and the other pregnant girls spent their time preparing meals and washing endless piles of dishes. If any good had come from her time there, at least she was a great cook now.

She nuzzled against the headrest of her seat and felt a small bit of pressure on her stomach. Hal probably rubbing her again. Just as she was dozing off, she heard him softly call her name.

"Alice. Alice."

"Sleeping," she muttered.

"Wake up, Alice."

She shoved her sunglasses to the top of her head and rubbed her eyes. "What?" she whined. "You just told me to go to sleep."

Hal laughed. "Alice, we're almost there. You've been asleep for hours."

She squinted at the dashboard, making out the radio flashing 1:19. "I don't feel like I slept at all." Out the window, she could see they were on the road leading into town, nearly at the Welcome to Riverdale: The Town with Pep! sign. "You're bringing me straight to the hospital, right?"

"Lets go to the house first. Settle in."

She sighed. "No, let me get this out of the way."

Hal reached over and took her hand. Carmel's eyes popped open. "You don't need to do this right now. You don't even need to do this today. We'll stay at long as you need."

"I'll stay as long as I need. You have a job to get back to." Carmel stood up and Alice dug her nails into her orange fur until she lay back down. "I put this off long enough. At least if I go now, see what kind of shape he's in… I'll be able to figure out how long this will take."

"Did you call the hospital? Talk to anyone?"

Alice bit the inside of her cheek. Hadn't she told him she'd do that yesterday? Had she forgotten or just not done it because she didn't want to? "They have to let me see him. Look at me. Pregnant woman with a sob story. Who'd say no to that?"

"Why don't we get something to eat first? Root beer float at Pops?"

Her stomach rumbled. Alice, and surely every other Riverdale native, had grown so accustomed to Pops growing up, no other ice cream based beverage ever tasted as good. Even the ones she made herself at the diner. "No. No, I'm not hungry."

"Really?" He smirked at the road. "You're not hungry?"

"I'm always hungry now," she mumbled. "But I can wait. Just… just drop me off at the hospital. I'll call the house when I'm done."

"Let me go in with you."

"I don't want you around my dad."

"Alice." Hal's voice fell soft. "The man probably doesn't even know who he is anymore. He's not going to do or say anything."

"No, no." She shook her head, disrupting Carmel. The cat gave her a distasteful look before jumping to the backseat in one swift motion, settling down next to her carrier instead of inside. "This is something I need to do alone. It's not about you."

Hal gave her a small nod, but stayed silent, turning onto the road that'd lead them to the hospital. He finally spoke as he pulled into a spot by the drop off. He rubbed his temples before he finally spoke.

"Alice, I was part of the reason everything got so bad between you two. Don't you think I kind of owe it to you?"

" _No_." She sighed, unbuckling her seatbelt and grabbing her purse from the floor. She gave a quick look in the backseat at Carmel fast sleep on the upholstery before she opened the door. "This is about him. Not you, not even me. Him. Just let me do this." She leaned over and quickly kissed him. "I'll call the house when I need you to get me."

She got out of the car and walked up the couple steps to the entrance, giving Hal a wave before pushing open the door. The overpowering antiseptic smell immediately made her uneasy as she approached the help desk. The woman behind the desk, grey haired and grandmotherly, smiled at her, eyes darting down to her stomach.

"Maternity is right down the hall, dear. Just make a left when you get to the end of the hall."

Alice cleared her throat, hands going right to her abdomen. She knew she should have worn something looser than a tank top and cardigan. It had been so much easier to hide the last time. Oversized t-shirts and high waisted jeans had blended in so nicely in high school.

"Not maternity, no. I'm here to see a patient. I'm just not sure what ward he's in."

"Hmm." The woman's smile slipped a little as she pulled an index from the corner of the desk. "Let's see what I can do for you. Patient's name?"

Alice resisted sucking her teeth. Wasn't it this woman's job to help her? Not just 'see what she could do.'

"Rodger Smith. He… well, he has cancer. Not sure where he'd be now." She widened her eyes and put her hands on the desk, leaning over as much as she could without seeming invasive.

The nurse didn't look up as she flipped through the cards. "Well, if he's under treatment or in intensive care, he'll only be allowed people marked as visitors. Your relation?"

"I'm his daughter. Not sure if I'd be down as a visitor though." The nurse finally looked up at her over the rims of her glasses. "We're estranged."

"Hmmm," she hummed again. "That's never good."

"I'm pregnant, as I'm sure you can see. I just really want a chance to –"

"Ah! Here he is. Looks like he's in – oh. Well, that won't be a problem." She turned her whole head up, giving Alice a sympathetic look. "Fourth floor, dear. Hospice."

Alice swallowed the gasp in her throat. "Hospice?" she asked. Did she know that already? Why was she surprised? Surely, FP hadn't said he was under hospice care in one of his messages. Or had he? Hal's voice popped into her head, mentioning something about pregnancy brain and forgetfulness, but she shook it away.

"Afraid so, dear." Alice's hands were still leaning against the desk and the woman quickly placed one of her own on top of hers. She resisted the urge to yank it away. "It gets to a point where it's the best option. We make them nice and comfortable until the end."

"Hospice," she repeated, nodding her head. The word sounded so final. "But I can go see him?"

"I'll do you one better." She picked up the phone on the desk. "Why don't I call someone from that ward to bring you up to speed on his condition before you go in? Sometimes people don't seem entirely themselves when they're at that point. I don't want it to be a shock for you."

"What's the room number?"

"I'll have someone come down and escort you up."

"No," she said firmly. She tried to keep herself from glaring at the woman. "I can find it myself. Just tell me the room number." She forced a smile and the nurse eyed her skeptically. "Please?"

"Fourth floor, room 15." She scribbled it on a piece of paper and held it out. "There's an elevator around the back here. It's for staff and patients normally, but you shouldn't be walking up so many stairs in your condition."

Alice snatched the paper from the woman's hand and gave her a curt smile. "I'll take the stairs. Thank you." She turned on her heel, walking until she reached the heavy fire door half way down the hall. She pulled it open with flourish, holding in her annoyance until she was alone in the stairwell.

 _Deep breath in, deep breath out_. She cracked her knuckles, fighting the urge to clench her fists.

There it was. Again. The entire world treating her like this delicate little flower because she was pregnant. She remembered Mrs. Cooper – Prudence – visiting her weekly at The Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Always telling her not to worry about what was going on back home. To do her homework, but not go overboard and stress herself out. (After all, she'd be lucky to graduate at all that year. Putting in the extra work might all be for naught.) To not even think about what Hal was up to, and no dear, of course he can't come see you, it'd be terrible for the both of you to see each other right now. Think of the baby, dear. Stress is _so bad_ for the baby.

As if anyone cared about that first baby besides her.

Even now, as she worked her shifts at the diner, customers looked at her with such pity. The poor, young pregnant girl should be at home with her feet up, watching daytime television with a pint of ice cream, not on her feet all day, pouring coffee and slicing up pie in her practical sneakers. It grew frustrating, the way she had to flash her wedding ring or mention her husband and his good job working for a magazine so they didn't look at her like she was such a failure.

At least her tips had almost doubled since she started showing. The other waitresses assured her they'd only increase the bigger she got and not to give a second thought about these strangers and their judgement.

Alice trudged up the three flights of steps, not letting herself take a break. The fact that they'd make grieving families walk all this way to see their dying loved ones was disgusting. Alice was pressed more by resentment than love and pushed on, holding in her pants until she reached the top floor. It was hard to believe she'd once ran miles a day turning track practice. She opened the door on the top floor and looked both ways, following the sign that said rooms 1-20. The sickly antiseptic smell was ten times stronger up here than it was in the lobby and she had to take a few more deep breaths to push down her nausea. Morning sickness had ended a few weeks ago, but certain smells had started triggering her.

The door was closed to room 15. Alice pushed it open slowly, peeking inside.

The man in the bed looked like a poor imitation of her father. He had always been a thin man, but now he looked skeletal, gaunt. She would probably be able to count every one of his ribs if she wanted to. His hair and beard had grown long, but it looked like someone had at least been taking the time to neaten it. There was a fair share of white hair mixed against the light brown and although his eyes were closed, she imagined they'd still be the cold, steely blue she remembered.

He was a shadow of the man Alice knew. And maybe that was for the best.

There was a chair near his bed and she sat down cautiously, not wanting to wake him up. She wasn't even sure if he could wake up. Was he responsive? Sedated? Just sleep all day because he wanted to? Maybe she should have talked to a doctor first.

"Dad?" she asked softly. She dropped her purse on the small table next to his bed and scooted the heavy chair forward, cringing at the awful screeching noise it made against the tiled floor. She stopped when she was about a foot from him. "Dad, it's me. It's Allie."

The machines beeped, whirled. Her dad's chest moved up and down slowly, right in tune with the noises, but he didn't open his eyes or give any sign he knew she was there. The tightness in her chest let up a little, but her heart beat sped. She reached over slowly and placed her hand on his.

"Do you remember the last time we even touched?" The room was too quiet and she knew her voice was coming out much lower than normal. She cleared it and tried again, slightly louder. "That night I came back from homecoming crying. I always hid my tears from you, but I couldn't that day. I tried running to my room and you grabbed me and – and you hugged me. You hadn't hugged me in years by then. I could smell the whiskey on you, but I still let you hug me. And you asked me what was wrong. You must have known it was something big if you actually stopped me and asked. I don't know why I told you I was pregnant. Why I thought you'd take it any other way. Maybe because you're my dad and you were supposed to protect me. Or because right then and there you acted like you cared for the first time in forever. I told you and you held me away, you looked me up and down. And then you slapped me. You slapped your pregnant 17-year-old daughter. And then I yelled at you and you yelled at me and then I hit you back." Alice let her face fall into her hands as she kept talking. "That was the worst night of my life.

"We screamed and screamed. I'm surprised no one called the cops. That FP or Nora didn't come check on us. Then out of nowhere you grabbed me and shoved me out the door. For a second I really thought you were going to push me down the stairs. That'd take care of all our problems, right?" Tears starting falling into her palms but she didn't take her hands off her face. "But no, you dragged me down those stairs, shoved me into the cab of the truck and drove us to Hal's house. I begged you to stop. Or to at least let me drive. Be reasonable, wait until morning to go talk to them. How sad is that? A child _begging_ their own father to be reasonable. Like people didn't talk about us enough – talk about me enough – that Southside trash trying to fit in where she didn't belong. And you probably believed it to, right? Maybe that was your plan. You thought you could drop me off and demand they take me and never have to deal with me again. Your own daughter. Because lets face it, once I stopped dealing for you, you didn't need me anymore. And I'd be 18 soon enough, and if I wasn't going to commit my life to the Serpents than I really wasn't worth anything to you.

"You left me there, Dad. They said they'd take care of it and I wonder how much you even knew. Did they tell you where I was going? They must have. And you couldn't be bothered to call or visit. Even send me a fucking postcard. I spent Christmas alone that year. These junkie bitches had family visiting, but me? No one. Mrs. Cooper came the next day with cookies and a gift from Hal and that was my entire Christmas that year. Not like anything with you would be any better."

She rubbed the tears off her face and gasped. Her father's eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling. She lifted out of the seat slightly to get a better look at his face before she plopped back down.

"Can you hear me?" she asked. Nothing for a few seconds, then a low moan escaped his throat. "Can you talk?" Nothing. She shook her head. "I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to be sorry I didn't come sooner, but I'm not. I'm not sorry at all. I'm pregnant again. I know you want to laugh, but you can't, can you? We didn't plan this one either. I just have that extra fertile Southside blood I guess.

"I'm supposed to forgive you now, right? Say that I've gotten past everything you put me through and I'm stronger now and better for it. Well guess what? I don't forgive you. I hate you." Heat flashed through her body as her voice rose. She stood up and leaned over him. "Hell, I wish you were dead already. You in this bed. Pathetic, not able to do a do a fucking thing for yourself, waste of air. You're just teasing me." She straightened up as a sharp pain ran through her midsection. She clutched her stomach for a moment as it faded, leaning against the edge of the bed for support.

"I was only going to come here once, you know. Tell you to go hell and can't wait to see you there. Now? I think I'll stick around. Watch you go nice and slowly. My first pregnancy thrived off me being pissed at you. Why should this one be any different? I have nowhere to go." She leaned down, finally lowering her voice. "I will come here ever Goddamn day until they quit wasting power on you."

The pain ran through her midsection again as she straightened her back out. She grimaced and clutched her stomach.

"Hey… Alice?" a voice asked from the door. "Allie. Shit. You okay?"

She let out a low breath, trying to hide her annoyance. She'd know that smooth, cocky voice anywhere. By the time she turned around, FP Jones was right behind her. He reached to put a hand on her shoulder, but caught himself, opting to stroke his short beard instead.

Alice opened her mouth – to greet him, yell at him, thank him, she wasn't sure – but instead a tut came from the back of her throat.

"God, of course you still fucking do that."

FP's eyes widened. "Do… do what?"

"That!" She gestured madly at his face. "You used run your hands through your hair all the time. Now you do it to your beard?"

His mouth fell open slightly before breaking into a grin. "God. And here I thought maybe you changed. Still good old Allie."

She waved her finger in his face. "Alice. Don't make me say it again."

FP nodded. "Yeah, Alice. Alice." His hand dropped from his face and he extended his arms. His voice dropped. "Don't leave me hanging. Come here."

She swallowed the lump in her throat before taking the step towards him, allowing him to wrap his arms around her. Although her stomach was still too small to be of inconvenience, she was very aware of how it pressed into him. She wrapped her arms back around him and took in his scent. Tobacco and leather. Just like she remembered. She could swear he took a sniff of her hair.

FP broke the hug first, but left his hands on either of her shoulders, keeping her at arm's length. He looked her up and down and smirked. Alice cut him off before he could speak.

"If the next line out of your mouth is going to be a joke about my husband and pulling out, I really suggest you rethink it."

"Oh, come on." He pouted at her and dropped his arms. "Please?"

She shook her head. "You haven't changed at all. "

FP shrugged. "People don't ever really change." His eyes wandered over to her father. She'd nearly forgotten about him.

"The beard," she said quickly, not ready to talk about the man in the bed with someone else yet. "Where'd that come from?"

His hand went back up to his face and ran his hands through it again. "Something new I'm trying. I think it suits me. You like it?"

"Hate it. Hal keeps trying to skip shaving. Like I'm just going to let him grow facial hair or something." FP let out a chuckle. "But I guess you're right. Not for me, but it does suit you."

FP shuffled his feet back and forth. "You talk to any of the doctors yet?"

"No, I practically snuck up here. They wanted someone to escort me and brace me for seeing him."

"You want to talk to someone?"

She bit her lip, considered his question. "I mean, what's to even discuss at this point? The hospital bill?"

"That'll be taken care of, don't worry." He nodded towards the door. "There's a lounge for visitors down the hall. I don't feel right catching up in here." He walked towards the door. She grabbed her purse off the table and followed him.

"I'm not here to catch up," she said as she fell in place beside him. He was taller with the long legs, but she was fast enough to keep pace. Always had been. "I just wanted to see him. Just once. You know, tell him to go to hell."

"Ah. So you _were_ getting my messages."

"What can I say? You always knew exactly how to get on my nerves."

"I like your answering machine message. Very cute. How many times you have to record it to get it perfect, Alice Cooper?"

Four. Hal kept laughing during it. "First time."

"I expect nothing less from you." FP stopped and pulled open a door, gesturing her inside the empty room. There were two ancient couches and a few chairs and tables set up. Coffee and hot water were set on a counter amongst tea bags, granola bars, cookies. "I guess you can't have coffee, right? There's juice in the fridge."

Alice's mouth practically watered at the thought of coffee. She hadn't had any since discovering she was pregnant. Pouring all those cups at work was pure torture.

"I can have coffee," she said quickly. "One cup is fine. One cup is nothing." She'd cram a few pieces of gum in her mouth before Hal picked her up to cover the smell.

FP handed her the cup he'd already poured. "Sorry. I thought no caffeine when you're pregnant."

She let out a small groan as she took the cream out of the refrigerator and went about making her cup. "Oh, have you been reading baby books too? What do you know about it?"

He smiled, pouring a cup for himself. "I can just see you two curled up in bed every night, gushing over chapters about gestation and placenta and all that stuff. What a life." He shoved an entire cookie in his mouth, barely bothering to chew, and tossed a few more on a paper napkin. Alice followed him to one of the couches and sat down, carefully placing her purse between them to make a barrier.

"Good to know you still fantasize about Hal and I in bed." She took a small sip of her coffee, letting the hot liquid sit in her mouth for a moment so she could savor it. "Seems we've gotten a bit less wild in our old age. No more whips and handcuffs?"

"I hope they're still there. Life must get pretty boring when you've only slept with one person."

Another small sip, making him wait for her reply. She raised her eyebrow slowly. "Who says I've only slept with one person?"

FP worked on his second cookie, actually biting into this one. "Have we been inviting people into the bedroom? Have to spice things up after so many years?"

"You really want me to answer that?"

"Hell, I thought all I had to do was ask and you'd tell. Wasn't that our rule?"

Alice shrugged, holding in her smile. She hated that she missed this, missed him. No one else was ever able to match her in a game of wisecracks like he was. Those Southside kids – what they lacked in class and money, they made up for with their quick wit and sharp tongues.

Another pain shot through her and she pressed her free hand to her stomach. FP, finishing his second cookie, nearly dropped his coffee down on the table. "You okay?"

She nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. "Fine. Just fine."

"You look like you're in pain."

"I'm just – uncomfortable. That's all."

FP regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "That's it?"

"That's it."

He picked up another cookie and offered it to her. She scowled at him touching it, but took it regardless.

"So how's Boston?"

"I think we're past the point of making small talk. We're here to talk about my dad."

"Oh? And here I thought we were talking about your sex life." FP's eyes wandered to the door, as if someone might burst in at any moment. He dropped his voice. "The Serpents will take care of his hospital bills, his… his funeral when it comes. Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't worrying. I know you didn't think for a second I was paying for anything that has to do with that man."

"All that rage, Alice." FP dunked a cookie in his coffee like a kid, quickly shoving it in his mouth before it dripped everywhere. He spoke through his chewing "It'll tear you apart."

"Let it try." She swirled her coffee with the wooden stirrer. She was starving a few minutes ago, but the pain was starting to get to her.

"Why'd you come back then? No one comes all this way just to tell someone to go to hell."

"I needed closure. I needed him to know he can't get to me anymore. That I don't care."

"Bullshit. Of course you care. If anything you care even more now."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

FP took a long sip of his coffee before answering. He knew she was getting fed up with him yet he really had the nerve to tease her. "If he was still all here, still okay… he'd say something back and you'd yell, and he'd yell and it'd be this big old mess. That's why you didn't come earlier. Wait until he's almost gone. On his actually, factually death bed and lay into him. I heard you back there. Got all those years of pain out. But you don't feel any better. You don't because that old man, that's not your dad anymore. That's just some vessel. Yelling at a body – a dying body – didn't do shit for you. You feel worse now. You feel guilty. I heard you, what if someone else did too? A nurse walking by, a doctor. Anyone. He's been here for a while. They all know he had no family visiting. Now this girl comes in, the missing daughter, and yells at him? The man that can't even breathe on his own anymore and you come in here guns blazing. He was so nice and docile at the end. They don't know what he did to you. So now you need to keep up appearances. You need to stick around, make it look good. Hell, you may never see these doctors and nurses again, but you don't want to be some story them pass around, gossip over." He raised his cup one more time and drained it. "Am I right or am I right?"

Alice bit into her cookie, chewing slowly. She could keep him waiting too. She took a tiny sip of her coffee, placed her cup down, and flipped him off. He grinned again.

"Oh Allie. You hate how well I still know you."

"I hate _you_."

FP shook his head slowly. "Nah, I don't think you really do."

"Damnit, FP." She sighed, leaning back into the couch. "When did he stop being… stop being him?"

"Hard to say. It happened so gradually. One day he's a little more quiet, the next he's forgetting my name. Little things, you know? Like his mind just started slipping. Now he's so pumped full of morphine and God knows what else, he's got no clue where he is right now."

"That's how they do it?" Alice scoffed, staring into her coffee cup. "Just drug them up and let them slip off?"

"There was nothing they could do for him anymore. He did chemo and all that. Nothing was helping." FP tilted his head. "Did you even know?"

She shook her head. "No. We haven't spoken in years."

"Mom died last year," FP said softly. Alice broke her gaze from the cup. "Did you know?"

She bit her lip. "I did. My mother-in-law sent me the obituary from The Register. I'm… I'm so sorry, FP. I should have called or sent something. Anything."

"It's okay," he said quickly. "It's fine. It was really quick with her. Not even two months after she was diagnosed. Just like that." He snapped his fingers. "She always loved you like a daughter, you know."

Alice nodded. "Nora was the closest thing I ever had to a mom. I should have came back. Paid my respects."

"She was glad you got out a Riverdale. She wouldn't have wanted you to bother for her."

"I used to still call her when we first went to Boston. Once a week, then once a month, holidays."

"I remember."

"I forget when I stopped. Or when she stopped. It just happened. Then my mother-in-law called me and told me and I tried to call your dad. I really did. I just… I couldn't. How is he?"

"Heartbroken still." FP combed his hands through his hair. It was so much shorter than last time Alice had seen him. She wondered if growing the beard was his way of balancing it out. "Bad back still. I moved him into a trailer at Sunnyside."

Alice's eyes widened. "Sunnyside? What happened to the house?"

"We sold it."

She caught her breathe. "You sold the house? Why?"

"Too much work for me to keep up myself. Mom gone, me in the apartment, then everything with your dad. Fred's mom handled it for me."

"Who brought it? Someone else living there now?"

"Nah. Some land developers snatched it up as soon as it went on the market. They're tearing it down from what I heard." Alice pulled a face as another bout of pain shot through her. "What are you so upset about? You hated that house."

A few deep breathes until it passed. "That's not the point, FP. We grew up there."

He drummed his fingers against the arm of the couch. "We can still go look at it, if you want. If you have time. You probably have cribs to build and nurseries to paint though."

She let out a small laugh. "We live in a one bedroom apartment. No nursery to speak of."

"You're going to raise a kid there?"

"Hal wants to move out to the suburbs, buy a house. But we can't move while I'm pregnant. I must avoid stress and moving is the number one cause of stress during pregnancy." She took another small sip of coffee. "Baby books."

"Dying parent up there with stress?"

"Somewhere, I'm sure."

FP tilted his head. "I figured you two would be all settled by this point. Good jobs and all. How're you still in an apartment?"

"It's a big city. Everyone lives in apartments." Her coffee was growing cold in her hands. "I want to come back sometimes. Back to Riverdale."

"You're back right now."

"For good I mean. Buy a place, raise our kids somewhere more familiar. Somewhere we're from."

"On the Northside of town. Take over the Register when your in-laws retire and move to Florida."

"Maybe, yeah. And why not? We are Riverdale."

FP smiled at her. "You spend your whole life trying to get out and now you're trying to come back. That's pathetic, Alice Cooper."

"Isn't it though? And stop calling me that. Alice Cooper."

He raised his hands in defense. "It's not Allie. It's not Smith. What else am I supposed to call you?"

"You know perfectly well the tone you're using. Don't make fun of my name."

"You can't legally change your name to _Alice Cooper_ and not expect me to make fun of you. You made your bed, now lie in it."

She shook her head. "That's not what that even means." She put her purse in her lap. "You see a payphone around? I need to call Hal to pick me up. Unless you…?"

"Sorry. Rode my bike here. I'm sure the baby books have a whole chapter on motorcycle safety, but I'd rather not risk it."

"Your bike?" He nodded. "When did you learn how to ride?"

"Not long after you guys left, I guess."

"So you _are_ still in with the Serpents." FP shushed her even though the room was empty. "I was really hoping you were just around my dad because he lived right there and you were being neighborly or something." Her voice was growing harsher. "How dumb are you?"

"I'm _not_ – I'm not with them anymore, okay? I don't run any jobs or sell or carry or anything. In fact, the only reason I talk to any of those guys anymore is because your dad was sick. I'm just riding a bike because I like it, okay?" She glared at him. "Okay?"

"Yeah, whatever. Well, if you can't take me home." She stood up and her knees nearly buckled as a sharp pain went through her. FP jumped up and grabbed her, slowly lowering her to the couch.

"Allie? Alice? What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. This pain just keeps coming and going. It almost feels like – I don't know. Like contractions or something."

"I'll go get a nurse, okay?"

"No," she snapped, grabbing his hand and pulling him down. "I just need for it to pass."

"Alice, you can't –"

"Just stay with me for a minute?" She swallowed hard and squeezed his hand. "Please?"

FP's body relaxed as he leaned back into the couch. "Yeah, Allie. Whatever you say."

She breathed in and out slowly. "Shut up, Junior."

He nodded, letting her squeeze his hand as another pain passed through her.


	6. Chapter 6

Junior Year

FP wasn't trying to eavesdrop. He just stumbled upon them.

A back yard. A party. An end of school party, to be exact. Well, the bonfire at Sweetwater River was the real end of school party. This was the post party. The we're-about-to-be-seniors-so-we-can-have-two-parties-in-one-night party. Hosted by none other than the ever indulgent Hermione Nichols. (Because who else would come up with the idea to throw a second, exclusive party right after they had just left a party? Only Hermione, that was who.)

It was smaller crowd than any event Hermione hosted before, but it was still raging. All the graduating seniors split after the bonfire, not willing to be caught dead at a high school party once those caps and gowns were off. And half of their junior class seemed to have called it a night and taken off from the river.

Whatever. More party for the rest of them.

The kegs were left at the river, so Hermione had placed out various bottles of liquor she knew her parents wouldn't miss. Their hostess was occupied on the couch of her living room at the moment, perched delicately on the lap of Fred Andrews with her tongue stuck halfway down his throat and FP wasn't much in the mood to disturb them. Fred was his ride home and the sooner he got in his cardio session doing this, that, and the other thing with Hermione, the sooner he'd burn off that alcohol and be able to take them home.

In the meantime, FP drank alone.

It seemed like so many of his friends had taken off. Most of the varsity football team went off to Pops, saying maybe they'd catch up later. Mary, who he'd seen nursing a single beer for the entire bonfire, was ever the good samaritan and took some drunk girls home, pinky promising she'd come to Hermione's afterward. She still was nowhere to be found.

He wandered out to the yard with his plastic cup of tequila (he'd chosen the bottle least touched, he wasn't picky) and lit a cigarette. A few people sat in a circle in the yard, passing around what could only be a joint. (FP's mind raced, wondering if he was the one that sold to them. Better had been him anyway.) A couple sat on a bench in the garden making out. FP shook his head with a grin, taking a puff off his cigarette. This is what being young was about.

He started walking to the side of the house, figuring maybe he could wait for Mary out front, when he heard a noise. He peeked around the corner of the house and saw a couple just a few feet away. He couldn't make out their faces, but it looked like the girl was pushing the boy up against the side of the house with her arms around his neck. FP let out a chuckle, about to abandoned his idea and finish his cigarette in the yard, when a familiar giggle met his ears.

"Alice, cut it out." FP's eyes were adjusting to the darkness of outside, but it looked like the boy (Hal, obviously Hal) was taking the girls hands off him and pushing her back. "You're drunk."

The giggle again. It made the hair on the back of FP's neck rise.

Alice fell right back on top of Hal. He feebly took a step back and leaned against the wall, taking her shoulders and holding her at arm's length. FP heard a groan.

"God, can't you loosen the fuck up and have some fun?" Alice stomped her feet. "For once I wish we could go somewhere without you acting like my babysitter. We're at goddamn a party!"

"Lower your voice," Hal hushed. "No one knows we're out here."

"I will not be silenced," Alice said forcefully, voice raising. "It's a fucking party. No one cares what we're doing."

"Why don't I just bring you home?" He pushed off against the wall and Alice grabbed his arm.

"I don't want to go home. I came here to have fun, to party –"

"I think you've partied enough."

Alice reached out and punched his arm. "And there you go. My fucking babysitter. Here I am, trying to fool around with you –"

"Alice." Hal took her by the shoulders and she crossed her arms and turned her head away, refusing to look at him. "You're too drunk to fool around."

"I'm your _girlfriend_ , not some random girl you're trying to take advantage of."

"It doesn't matter, you're _drunk_."

Alice threw back her head, groaning loudly again. FP turned around quickly, checking to see if anyone from the circle in the yard heard, but they were all preoccupied. He glanced down at his forgotten cigarette, noticing it was nearly down to the filter. He stamped it out and lit another.

"You know what? Maybe if you got drunk every once in a while you'd loosen up and not be such an uptight –"

"And if I get drunk, who's going to look after you?"

"I don't need anyone to look after me! I'm a big girl."

"I beg to differ. I've seen you do some pretty questionable things at parties. Plus I need to drive you home later."

"You live two blocks away. You can walk home and I'll get a ride."

"From who?"

Alice sighed, moving her hands from her chest to her hips. "I don't know. FP or Fred or someone. I'll figure it out."

Hal laughed harshly. "If you think I'm letting FP take you home when you're like this, you're out of your damn mind."

FP's ears perked. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"Don't you dare."

"Don't what?"

Alice punched him in the arm again and Hal shoved his hands in his pockets.

"You… you're not allowed to talk about FP like that. Ever. Okay?"

"You talk shit about him all the time."

"Yeah, but I'm allowed to!"

"Alice, last time he got you alone drunk, you two made out. On Mary's bed. How the hell am I supposed to trust him alone with you when you can't even think straight?"

"Oh, so this is about you not trusting me then, huh?"

"When did I say that?"

"You think I'm going to fuck him in that back of that gross van because I had a couple of shots? Are you crazy?"

"I trust _you_ , Alice. It's just sometimes with him… I don't know. He acts like we're friends, but then he pulls shit like that."

"We were fighting that night. I was mad at you and he was just _there_. Momentary lapse of judgement. Just let it go. Plus," she ran her hand up his arm until it was around his neck, "if I remember correctly, you were still the one who got to fuck me that night." Her voice was being softer, lower. "All he got was a couple of sloppy kisses that probably tasted like puke."

"I guess so." Hal sighed. "It's just -"

"No, no, no." Alice ran her other hand around his neck so she had him linked. He took his hands out of his pockets and rested them on her hips. "It's just nothing. It's over. And you know, I think a little part of you is happy it happened."

"Oh?"

"Uh huh." Alice took a few steps backwards until she was leaning against the side of the house, pulling Hal along with her. "Because you like it when I take you by surprise. Especially when it's something so… bad?" She started pulling Hal's face closer to hers. "You were so pissed at me that night. And you know when I misbehave then you get to –"

FP held in a noise of disgust. He'd heard enough. The highroad, the right thing to do, would be to head back into the party. Let the couple be.

But hell, FP was never one for highroads or doing the right thing. He stepped into the alleyway.

"Well, well," he called, raising his cup. "What do we have here? Allie and Coop."

FP pretended not to notice the way Alice had begun to hike her leg up or how Hal's thumbs were hooked into the waist of Alice's skirt. The couple broke apart as he approached them.

"Speak of the fucking devil," Alice muttered, straightening her skirt out. "What do you want?"

FP smirked. "You guys know the party's inside, right? Or were you starting a private party out here?"

Hal rolled his eyes. "We were just heading in. Alice?"

"Give me a smoke?" She extended her hand and sent a sweet smile his way. The fake, syrupy sweet smile she used when she wanted something. FP rolled his eyes and took a final puff off his cigarette before offering it to her.

"Gross," she scowled. "I don't want the one out of your mouth."

"Why? Like we've never shared anything." He laughed and smacked Hal on the shoulder, offering him a what's-with-her look. "Plus, you always take two puffs and stomp it out. I'm not wasting a cigarette on you."

"Come on." Alice ran her hand across his chest until she found the pack in his pocket and pulled it out. He could smell the beer on her. She put one in her mouth and tucked another behind her ear before handing the pack to him. "Two for giving me lip. Lighter?"

It was in the pocket of his jeans. "Lost mine. Got a light from someone out back. Come here."

He gestured her forward to light her cigarette with his own. She hesitated a moment, eyes flickering back towards Hal before leaning in and inhaling off his. She blew smoke out of her nose in his direction.

"Thanks." She gave him a genuine smile before taking a step back. Hal fell in line beside her and put his arm around her waist. It felt a little out of place, a little too intimate. Coop's arm normally had permanent residence around Alice's shoulder.

He tried to think back on what they were talking about before he interrupted them. Alice taking him by surprise. Being bad. Misbehaving?

A feeling rose in his throat that had little to do with the tequila. Was that the kind of stuff these two got off on? Acting out and fighting? Kinky weirdos.

"Say, I hid a bottle of tequila in the kitchen," FP said. "How about the three of us polish it off?"

Hal looked like he was going to shove his free hand in his pocket, but caught himself and stopped. FP bit the inside of his cheek; he was making Hal nervous.

Instead, he dug his fingers into Alice's hip and pulled her body closer into his. "You guys go for it. I'll chaperone."

"No, you'll drink too." Alice held up her cigarette to Hal's lips and stared at him until he took a drag off it. "I'll catch a ride with whoever's taking FP home, yeah?"

"Fred's driving. His mouth is a little too busy dancing with Hermione's to drink much tonight, so we should be good. Just got to wait until they're done consummating their new love or whatever. These horny kids and all their sex, you know?"

Alice let out that giggle again, red lips curling into a smile. She held her cigarette lazily just an inch away from them. "God, Junior. If I didn't know you better I'd almost say you sound jealous."

"Well, you must not know me all that well then. Hermione's not my type."

She took a drag and held the smoke in her mouth for a moment, making him wait for her reply. "You know that's not what I was talking about."

"What the –"

Hal cut him off. "She was clearly making a joke about you being jealous of Hermione, right?"

Alice locked eyes with FP. "Of course that's what I meant. How dare you let that harlot sink her claws into your boy? Fight for your man, FP."

FP rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Let's go drink."

Alice stomped out her cigarette and FP resisted calling her out on it. The wheels in his head were turning, formulating a plan even in his alcohol induced state. He didn't want to ruin anything yet. Alice wanted to make some jokes about him being jealous? Two could play this game.

"Isn't it a bad idea to have hard alcohol after beer?" Hal asked as they walked through the yard. Alice suddenly broke off from Hal and ran to the group smoking on the grass.

"Come on, Coop. That's an urban legend, an old wives tale." The two of them watched as Alice knelt down on the grass and took a hit off of whatever the group was smoking. "Beer, liquor. You think your body knows?"

"Isn't it beer before liquor, get sick quicker?"

"Like I said, old wives tale."

"I just don't want Alice going home sick as a dog for mixing."

Alice practically skipped back to them, grabbing each of them by the arm and pulling them towards the door. "What're we talking about?"

"Whether or not you can have liquor after beer."

" _Hal_." She let go of both of them and took her stance in the doorway of the kitchen. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "If you're going to be like this, just go."

"Like what?"

"You know like what. Have some fun or leave. I can take care of myself."

He shook his head. "I'm staying, Alice. Of course I'm staying."

She looked him up and down. "You're drinking with us."

"Yeah, okay. Let's drink."

Her finger waved in his face. "Tequila. FP said it's a tequila night so," she jabbed her finger into his chest, "we are having tequila tonight."

Hal sighed. "Sure. Tequila night."

Alice scrunched up her nose and smiled, grabbing both of them again and pulling them into the kitchen.

Hermione set up a bar in the den, so the kitchen was empty. FP had hid the bottle he nabbed on a small decorative shelf above the sink with empty wine bottles. (FP couldn't figure out if Hermione's mom was waiting to recycle them or just showing off her drinking problem.) He took it down and started opening cabinets, searching until he found the glassware. He grabbed two shot glasses and one rock glass.

Hal had taken a seat at the table and Alice plopped down in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his. FP sat next to them, placing the bottles and glasses down in front of them.

"Can you believe they only had two shot glasses? People must have grabbed the rest. We'll have to make due." He placed the glasses in front of him and started pouring.

"Perfect!" Alice exclaimed. She reached to the caddy in the middle of the table and pulled out a salt shaker. "What chance is there we can find some limes?"

"Come on, Allie. Since when do you need a chaser? I've seen you suck this stuff right out of the bottle."

She stuck out her tongue at him and made to grab the rock glass. He pulled it away from her.

"Nope, this one is for Coop." He picked it up by the rim and extended it to Hal. Alice raised her eyebrow.

"We're bullying him into drinking and you give him a full cup? That's got to be at least three shots worth in there." She reached over to take it from FP, but Hal grabbed it first and held it out of her reach.

"He needs to play catch up, right Coop?" He and Hal locked eyes. They both nodded slightly.

"Catch up, yeah." He raised the glass.

"Catch up?" They all turned their heads to the door where Mary stood, hands on hips. "What're we doing?"

"About time you showed up, Mare," FP said, getting up and going back to the cabinet. He pulled another rock glass down even though there were plenty of shot glasses. "I can't spend all night watching these two paw at each other."

"As if he doesn't like watching," Alice said in a loud whisper.

Mary took a seat at the table as he sat back down. He placed the glass in front of her and held the bottle of tequila over it. "One shot or are you playing catch up too?"

Mary pursed her lips and looked between them all. She smiled when she saw Hal's cup.

"Really Hal? You're going to drink that?"

He raised it towards her. "For starters. This is just the first round."

FP clapped him on the back with his free hand a little harder than he meant to. His plan may be messy and full of holes, but it was falling into place.

Mary sighed and nodded. "I'll play catch up. I already told my parents I was sleeping over here tonight." She placed her chin in her hands as FP poured. "Anyone notice the happy couple in the living room?"

"Who?" Alice asked. She licked her hand and poured some salt on it before sliding the shaker to Mary.

"Fred and Hermione." Mary licked her hand and poured. "So are they're official now I guess?" She eyed her glass. "Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't sleep over tonight."

"Nonsense, Fred is leaving with us," FP said as he took the salt from her. He repeated the girls' move and licked his hand. "Drink. It'll make you feel better."

"You don't need him, Mary," Alice said. FP handed the salt to Hal. "Fred wants to be with some girl who's going to break his heart, let him. He doesn't deserve the likes of you."

"You talk ill of someone as you sit in their kitchen and drink their parent's booze?" Mary asked.

"Absolutely." Alice yanked the salt shaker out of Hal's hand. She leaned back a bit and pointed right above her collar bone. "Here."

Hal's eyes darted between FP and Mary. "Come on, not in front of them. You'll get salt down your shirt."

She tapped her collar bone with each word. "Right. Here."

Hal quickly licked the spot and poured salt on her. Alice let out a small squeal. FP could feel Mary's gaze on him but refused to look at her.

Alice lifted her glass first. "What are we toasting? The summer?"

"Senior year?" Hal suggested.

"Friends and good company?" Mary asked.

"Screw all that." FP raised his glass to the middle of the table and gestured for them to follow in suit. "To tequila!"

"Tequila!" the other three yelled in sync. FP, Mary, and Alice licked the salt off their hands and FP couldn't help but glance at the couple as Hal licked Alice's neck.

Alice and FP slammed their shot glasses down together. Mary took a pull, maybe sucking down a quarter of her cup. Hal took one, two, three gulps before emptying the cup, slamming it down as he pulled a face.

"That's fucking harsh," he coughed. Alice went into a fit of giggled and wrapped her arms back around his neck, planting a quick kiss on his lips.

"I'm so proud of you."

"Me too, Coop," FP chimed in. "But you're not getting a kiss out of me. Round two?"

Hal looked sideways at Alice, then at Mary, attempting a second sip of her drink. He slid his cup to FP.

"Why not?"

Mary sat out round two and three, nursing her first drink instead. After their third round, the bottle was nearly empty. Alice jumped off her boyfriend's lap with flourish.

"I will go find us something better than a $10 bottle of tequila. Maybe I can jimmy open her parents liquor cabinet? That's probably where they keep the decent stuff."

Hal stood up after her, swaying a bit. "I'll come with you." Alice grabbed him by the hand with a giggle and the two stumbled into the next room.

The lazy smile dropped from Mary's face as soon as the couple was out of sight and she glared at FP.

"What're you up to?"

FP placed his index finger in his empty shot glass and twirled it around, not meeting Mary's eyes. "Don't know what you mean."

"Oh, come on. That was so obvious." Mary put her head down close to the table so FP would have to look at her. He fixated on his cup. "FP, you're trying to get Hal drunk."

"Not trying." He licked his lips, trying to keep his smile at bay. "I _did_ get him drunk, the fucking lightweight. Success."

Mary reached over and jabbed his side hard with her finger. He finally looked up at her.

"And why? What's getting Hal drunk do?"

"I get to take Alice home."

"Technically, Fred's taking you both home, so…"

"I just – I had a plan. Hear me out? I get Hal drunk so he can't drive her home. He doesn't drink much as it is, so just make sure he's drinking twice what we are, give him the big cup, right? He's smashed. He only lives a few blocks away so he can leave his car here and walk home. So now Alice and I, we were both a little tipsy from earlier. We drink the same amount, but she's so much smaller I'd say she's a little drunker than me, yeah? So after Freddy's done fu- eh, whatever with Hermione, he takes us home. I'll have to either help Alice upstairs or, if her dad's still awake, have her hang out in my room."

Mary was glaring at him, nostrils flaring. "And?"

"And what? I talk to her. I do what you've been telling me to do."

"No, FP, no." Mary's head fell to the table with a loud thump. She'd probably had a bump there in the morning, but she seemed unbothered at the moment, numbed by her drink. Her voice came out muffled against the table. "I have never told you to get Alice drunk and profess your love to her. Never."

"Love? I never said anything about love."

"FP." Mary put her head back up and rested her chin in her hands again. "I don't want to sound mean, but this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What's this going to accomplish? Confusing her? Making her feel bad that she doesn't feel the same way?"

"You're the one always saying to talk to her –"

" _Talk_ to her, FP. You're confused about your feelings for her and you need to get it off your chest. But not when you're both inebriated and you schemed to get her alone."

"Who uses a word like inebriated when they're drinking? You're one in a million, Mare."

Mary groaned. "This is stupid, FP. What good can come of this? And please don't say you want a repeat of that make out session in my bedroom."

FP stuck his finger back in the glass and started spinning it again. "I just want to talk to her, Mary."

"Then talk to her tomorrow. When you're both straight and sober and can have an actual conversation."

He shook his head. "I don't think I can. I've tried. I've tried a dozen times. It just doesn't come out right. It winds up a joke. Or – or it becomes playful flirting. God Mary, you know how much it sucks seeing them together all the time? Having to see her all the time? In school, at home. Say what you will about you and Fred. At least you don't have him prancing Hermione through your own house."

"Oh please." Mary blew a loose piece of her hair out of her face. "As if Alice and Hal are ever at your place. Her dad hates him. They're always at his house."

"Yeah, well, I need to see him pick her up all the time. The nerve, driving that car in the Southside."

Mary sighed and nudged her cup in FP's direction, eyes darting to the tequila bottle. He poured the rest in her cup, glancing at the door.

"They've been gone a while. Leave it to Alice to search for the good stuff."

Mary poured some salt right from the shaker into her mouth and drained her glass, cringing when she was done.

"That stuff really is crap. Hey, how about that salt on the neck bit?" Mary smirked. "Bet you _loved_ that."

"And to think I always thought you were a supportive friend. I'm feeling attacked."

"I'm being a realistic friend, FP. For example, they've been gone a while already." She looked towards the door, then down at him twirling the glass with his finger. "And be careful. That cup is going to go flying right off the table."

"They're just looking for another bottle."

"I mean, sure, that could be it. But you know they're both drunk, all over each other. We're at a house party after all."

FP gulped. "What? You think they just left so they could find a room or something?"

Mary shrugged. "Alice always says how exciting it is to do it in new places. I'm not judging."

His finger slipped and the shot glass went flying off the table, crashing against the wall. Him and Mary jumped.

"Shit." They both stood up. FP started picking up the bigger pieces of glass with his hand while Mary got a broom and dustpan from under the sink.

"All I'm saying is there's a time and place for everything." Mary gasped as she stood over him. "Stop it! Don't pick it up with your hands."

"I'm fine." He dumped the few pieces of glass in the dustpan as Mary swept up the rest. A drop of blood was seeping out of tiny cut on his palm. "Hey, Mare. Is that time and place for everything include fucking at another person's house while there's dozens of people downstairs?"

"That's none of our business." She emptied the dustpan in the garbage and turned on him, still staring at his palm. "Don't tell me you're bleeding."

"It's nothing. I'll go find a bandage. They're probably in the upstairs bathroom, right?"

He took off through the doorway, Mary on his heels.

"FP, we are not bursting in on them."

"Jesus, Mare. Of course not. We're just going to the bathroom."

They walked past the couch Fred and Hermione were tangled up on. He wondered why the hell they didn't move their escapades upstairs yet as well. He took the stairs two at a time, Mary panting behind him the whole way. The hallway was empty. He put his ear up to the first door on the landing, but Mary yanked him away roughly.

"This one is the bathroom." She pointed to the open door just across the hall and pulled him in, sitting him down on the closed toilet seat as she rummaged through the medicine cabinet. "I'm serious, FP. We're not walking in on them." She took his hand and wiped an alcohol swab against it much harder than she had too. He held in his grimace.

"I just want to know if they're up here."

Mary stuck a bandage on him. "So what? Hold your ear up to each door and see if you recognize their moans?"

"Walls in our house are paper thin."

She pulled a face. "That's gross. I will not partake –"

"Who's asking you to?"

"I just don't want you getting hurt anymore. You know they have sex. Just let them be."

"Let me do this, Mary? Please?"

She sighed, but nodded. They left the bathroom and Mary pointed to the next door. "This is Hermione's room, so no way it's that one. One at the end is her parents and the two across the hall are her sister's old rooms. I'd bet they're in one of the sister's."

FP shook his head, eyeing the first one Mary pointed out. "No. Alice would love if it was Hermione's room."

"Come on. Even Alice isn't that ballsy."

"Isn't she though?" He gave Mary a small shove. "Go ahead and listen."

"Gross. No way."

"Just for a second. Fred and Hermione are downstairs and who else would dare go in there?"

Mary sighed and slowly approached the door. She held her ear up and pulled it away in a flash, grabbing FP's arm and pulling him towards the stairs.

"Yeah, you were right. Gross."

"Come on, you couldn't have heard much. It was a second."

"A second that will play forever in my head." She shuddered. "So you got your answer. Feel better or worse?"

FP craned his neck over the crowd of people, until he could see the couch. Fred and Hermione were still there, attached at the lips.

"I'm about to feel better," he said, patting Mary's shoulder. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Get a room!" towards the couple.

Scattered laughs filled the room as Hermione broke off of Fred. She locked eyes with FP and smirked. "It's my house! I have my own room!" She jumped off of Fred's lap and took him by the hand, pulling him towards the stairs. Fred had on a permanent grin and seemed to be soaking up the catcalls as they went past.

Mary started biting her nails. "I really don't want to see the fallout of this."

"I do."

"Oh FP." Mary leaned her head on his shoulder. "I love you, but you have some deep seeded issues to work on."

"Don't we all, Mare? Don't we all."


	7. Chapter 7

Hal walked through the halls of the hospital as fast as he could without running, without looking like a madman. He stopped only when he got to Alice's room and took a few deep breaths, no doubt a trick he picked up from one of the numerous baby books he'd thumbed through these past few months. It took all his strength not to kick open the door and run to his wife.

When he finally collected himself, he gave a quick knock and went inside. Alice was propped up in the bed looking particularly small, hands resting on her stomach. Her head was facing the window and, since she made no move that she heard him, he assumed she was asleep.

Hal closed the door as quietly as he could and took a seat in the stiff chair next to her bed. He took her right hand off her stomach and held it in his own. The oversized hospital bracelet around her wrist made her hands seem tinier than normal.

What was is about hospitals that seemed to shrink people?

A sniffle escaped her.

"Alice?"

Hal stood up and leaned over her bed, catching a glimpse of her tear stained cheeks before she pulled her hand away from him and buried her face in the pillow.

"Alice, come on." He sat on the edge of her bed and leaned down to put his arms around her. "What happened? They told me over the phone it was nothing serious." She mumbled something into the pillow. He put his head down towards her and whispered in her ear. "There's no one else here. Just talk to me."

She half pulled her face away, glossy eyes meeting his. "You're here."

"Yeah, I'm here." He put his hand on her cheek.

"No, I mean _you're_ here. That's the problem. I can't talk to you about it."

He held in a sigh. "What do you mean?"

"I fucked up," she whispered, eyes brimming with tears again. "I fucked up and you wouldn't understand because you never fuck up."

"Of course I fuck up too, Alice."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Just tell me what happened. Please?"

Alice's lip quivered before the words finally spilled out. "I… I drank coffee."

A small noise of relief escaped him. "God, Alice. You worried me." He brushed a few strands of her hair back. "Coffee didn't do anything to you."

Her voice cracked as she spoke. "I just wanted it! And you keep telling me I shouldn't have it and it was just there and then FP told me I shouldn't have it and I drank it anyway and then this _pain_ -"

"Alice, calm down. What are you talking about? Pain? FP?"

She opened and closed her mouth a few times. Hal grabbed her a tissue from the side table. When she didn't take it from him, he wiped the tears running down her face himself. She took another breath before starting again.

"Braxton Hicks. That's all it was."

His hand crept to her stomach. "A lot of woman go through that. I mean, it's a little early but -"

"Hal, I didn't even know what the hell that was. Sounds like some terminal disease for Christ's sake, not just false labor. And do you know why I didn't know what it was? Because I didn't read your precious baby books! I don't know anything about babies! I can count on my hand how many times I've even held a baby! What are we going to do, Hal? What am _I_ going to do? What kind of expecting mother doesn't even want to read the goddamn baby books?"

He wished he'd never brought any of those books sometimes. "I know they come off like medical books, but they're actually really easy reads." Tears were welling up in her eyes again. He wrapped his left arm around her and kept his right hand on her stomach, still rubbing it gently. "You don't have to read the books, Alice. I've read them enough for both of us. It'll just come to you, okay?"

She leaned her head against his chest. "And if it doesn't? If I just never feel it? Then what?"

"There is no then what. You're going to be a good mom." She kept her head down. "No, you're going to be a great mom. Okay?"

"You can't just say a lot of pretty words and make them true."

"I'm not saying anything just to make you feel better. I'm saying it because it's true. Look how good you are with Caramel."

She snorted, through her tears. "She's a cat, Hal. And it took us years to get along."

"So you'll be nice and ready when our baby reaches those tough teen years." He kissed the top of her head. "Okay?"

"Okay," she said softly. After a few seconds she took her head off his chest. "Lay down with me for a while?"

"They said they could release you as soon as I got here to pick you up."

She fiddled with the collar of his shirt, not meeting his eyes. "They did. I'm just… I'm not ready to see your parents just yet."

He nodded and kicked off his shoes. Alice scooted over to the edge of the bed to make room for him and put her head back on his chest once he was laying down. She took a deep inhale off his shirt.

"Did you go to The Register office?"

He put his hand in her hair and started combing through it. "Yeah. My parents didn't think we'd be so early. I needed the keys to the house."

"I can smell it on you. Ink and dust. I missed that." Alice moved her head so her chin was resting on him and she could look him in the eyes. "What'd your parents say?"

"About?"

She rolled her eyes. "About you not shaving. What do you think, Hal? About the baby."

He swallowed the lump forming in his throat, hoping she didn't notice. "They're happy, Alice. They said as much when we called and told them."

"Yeah, they _said_ they were happy. How are they actually?"

"They're out of their minds with excitement. Who wouldn't be excited to be a grandparent?"

His parents knew exactly what time they were coming to town, yet made him drive across town to pick up keys. And his mother actually _had_ made a snarky comment about the five o'clock shadow he'd shown up with. ("Come now, Hal. No self respecting man who shaves every morning looks like that by 3 PM.") They hadn't even mentioned the baby until he brought it up. His father gave him a short smile and a clap on the back. His mother crossed her arms and said she knew it would all turn out for the best. This time.

It was about as good as he hoped it would go.

He'd then spent a solid half hour convincing them to pretend to be happy, even if it was just for Alice's sake. His mother mocked offence, calling him out on being anxious, jumpy. She'd thought he and Alice were finally ready to be parents, but if this was the behavior she was to expect from him, maybe they were jumping the gun. Again.

He was only jumpy because he'd left Caramel sitting in the car with the windows cracked. He wondered how long he could hide her in the house before his mom caught on.

He looked back down at Alice. Her head had fallen on its side and her eyes were shut. He could feel her steady breathing against his chest. She'd been so tired lately and working all those long shifts in the diner weren't helping any. Her words about moving back to Riverdale kept running through his head. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. To come back here, live this life that had already been set up for them. The life people expected of them. Stay in his childhood bedroom for a few months, maybe even until the baby was born. He could work at The Register with his parents and Alice could actually spend her pregnancy relaxing. His sister's room would make a fine nursery. It wasn't like Gertrude was ever coming back for her stuff.

 _No_. Something else in his head spoke up. They didn't run away from this town, these people, just to come running back. Small towns did breed small people and he'd be damned if his daughter (or son, it could still be a boy be supposed) was going to grow up to be small people.

One swift knock came from the door before it burst open. Hal wasn't sure if the noise or his jump was what woke Alice up, but they both sat up straight in the bed. He was suddenly reminded of all those nights in high school he'd carefully snuck Alice into his room after everyone was asleep. The smallest noise would wake both of them up back then, always afraid someone was going to walk in on them.

"One root beer float, just what the doctor ordered." FP stood in the doorway and did a double take upon seeing him. "Oh. Coop. Hal. Hey."

"Hey," he said slowly. Hadn't Alice mentioned FP in passing a few minutes ago? Had he met her here? "What're you -"

"I asked for a pudding cup," Alice said flatly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "No wonder it took you so damn long."

FP rolled his eyes and held it out to her. She took it cautiously. "You're welcome."

She stared down into it. "You didn't need to go to Pops for a float. I would have been happy with pudding from the cafeteria."

FP slumped down in the chair and gave Hal an exasperated look. "Can she take anything without bitching?" He turned back to her. "I didn't do anything. My girlfriend was bringing me lunch and I asked her to get you a root beer float too."

Alice was in the middle of her first sip. She nearly spit it out. "I'm sorry. Girlfriend?"

He scoffed. "Don't sound so surprised. Girls actually go crazy over me." He pulled out of his slump and leaned towards them. "Must be the bike."

"As if."

Hal glanced between the two of them a few times during their exchange, feeling very much so like he was sixteen all over again and playing third wheel to their banter. Third wheel to them.

How history loved to repeat itself.

"Hal, Hal." Alice shoved the straw in his face. "You listening? I asked if you wanted a sip."

He side glanced at FP and shook his head. "No. You know I'm not crazy about root beer."

FP pointed a finger at the two of them. "And I told her to ask Pop if the root beer was caffeine free before she ordered it. It is. Told you pregnant girls can't have caffeine."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Who is she?"

"Who?"

"Your girlfriend. She's obviously someone we know, or you would have said her name by now, right Hal?"

"Yeah, sure."

FP looked down in his lap. "Nah, really. You guys don't know her."

"You're still a shit liar." Alice took another long sip off her float, smacking her lips together. "God, I think I've missed these more than anything else in this town."

"Even more than me?"

Alice ignored him. "No one makes a float like Pop. Although, I'll be honest, I'm still really craving pudding."

"And still no thank you out of your mouth. Unbelievable." FP hit Hal's leg. "Hey, I'm pretty sure it's the expecting father's job to feed that kid, so you better get on finding her some pudding, Coop. Cafeteria's on the first floor."

Alice grabbed Hal's shirt even though he made no move to get up. "Don't you shoo my husband off, thank you very much."

"I'm not –"

"I will not put up with you fighting."

"Who's fighting? I was making a –"

"A joke. Of course." Alice scoffed. "Everything with you is one huge joke, right? Can't take anything seriously."

"Holy shit, Allie. I just –"

"My name is –"

" _Alice_." Hal wrapped his arm back around her. Her head snapped towards him, as if she'd forgotten he was still right next to her. "Relax. He's kidding around."

She stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. "Whatever. Doesn't matter." Her eyes darted back to FP. "Say, FP had this really stupid idea earlier. I think we should do it."

"We should – what?" He turned to FP, just to be met with a shrug.

"I'm sure you think all my ideas are stupid, so which one?"

Alice sucked her teeth. "The house, moron. You said it's still standing for now and we need to go see it before they tear it down."

FP's mouth fell slack. "I mean, that wasn't my idea exactly. I was just saying it's there if you want to see it."

She glared at him. "It was our childhood home and you sold it. I think you owe me one last trip there. Right, Junior?"

He closed his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

"So let's go now. We have nowhere else to be. Right Hal?"

He shook his head lightly at being addressed. "Go to… go to your old house?"

She pursed her lips. "FP sold it. Can you believe that?"

He rubbed his temple, still trying to make sense of what was going on. "Alice. Why? That house is nothing but bad memories."

"Well, so is your old house but we're about to stay there, aren't we?"

"My house is totally different. My house is just unpleasant memories. Yours is, well…" He trailed off. Alice pouted her lips.

"Hal." Her voice was low, but FP could still obviously hear her. "You want to talk about closure and all that nonsense. Isn't this part of it?"

He locked eyes with her and saw that pleading there. Her silently begging for him to go along with her plan. He nodded.

"Yeah. Lets go. Or I mean," he kept his eyes on her even though he wanted to gauge FP's reaction, "do you want me to go? Would you rather I not?"

The chair screeched across the floor as FP pushed back and stood up. "You know, I'm going to go find the nurse. You can leave now, right? I'll, yeah, I'll go find her to get you out of here." He turned on his heel and walked out, leaving the door ajar behind him.

Alice furrowed her brow watching FP leave. Her head snapped back in Hal's direct when he was out of sight. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you come?"

"I don't know." He looked at the open door leading to the long empty corridor. "Don't want to intrude."

"How would you be intruding?"

He shrugged and finally met her eyes again. "You two seem to be getting along."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She held up her finger. "Hal, I did not invite him here. He just happened to show up to see my dad."

"Yeah, I get that." He pressed his lips together. Words were playing on his tongue but he wasn't quite sure how they'd sound out loud. "It's just… you spent so many years angry at him. After what he said at graduation and everything. You weren't even speaking to him before we left. Now two hours and you guys are best friends again?"

The corners of Alice's mouth twitched. "Oh."

"Oh what?"

She pressed her lips together to hold in a smile. "This is what it feels like." Her eyebrow raised. "You're jealous."

Heat started rising in his face. "Jealous? I'm not -"

"Oh my God. All these years and, come on, Hal. I'm the one who gets jealous, not you." She bit her lip. "It's cute, actually, seeing you like this."

"Like nothing." He coughed, trying to get control of himself. "I just didn't think you two would be like this when you saw each other again. I'm surprised."

Alice picked up his hand and squeezed. "Aren't I supposed to let things go? Not be so bitter and mean? Forgiving him, wouldn't that be part of it?"

"Did you?"

"What?"

He stopped himself from letting out a groan. "Forgive him."

"Not exactly." She sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face in the process. "It didn't come up."

"Hmm." He put his hand over her's and squeezed. "Pudding. You still want pudding?"

Alice looked down at the root beer float, now half melted and looking even less appetizing to him. "No. No, this is fine. We're leaving soon."

"But you're hungry." He stood up. "I'm your husband. I can manage get you pudding."

"Hal, no." She took his hand. "Some part of me always thought I'd want to see this side of you, but no. Not like this. Not over something silly."

He pulled out of her grip and reached down to pull his shoes back on. "This isn't jealousy, Alice. This is just me wanting to take care of my wife."

"So you're not going to go chase FP down in the hallway?"

He was already taking a few backwards steps towards the door. "Didn't even cross my mind."

Hal walked out the door and half jogged to the empty nurse's station he remembered passing on his way up. FP was leaning against it, tapping his fingers against the counter.

"Hey!"

FP turned towards him slowly, the look in his eye saying he didn't want to have this conversation either. Hal came to a stop in front of him, taking in few short breaths. Had he really gotten that out of shape since high school?

FP pushed off the counter and stood to his full height, just a smidge taller than Hal. "Coop. Hey."

"Hey," he repeated, wanting to kick himself. Of course all words left his head once he actually got in front of him.

FP scratched his nose, hiding a grin. "Yeah, you said that already."

He felt himself growing flustered. FP had always been so good at that, knowing every which way to get under someone's skin.

Hal put his hands on his hips and took them off. It felt entirely too much like a move his mom would pull. He nearly shoved his hands in his pockets, but that felt like a tell. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and stuck in shoulders up as high as they'd go.

"So, how've you been?"

FP sighed. "We don't need to do this."

"Yeah, I think maybe we do." A phone was ringing at the empty nurse's station. "What're you doing here?"

"We ran into each other." FP held his hands in front of his chest. "Look, I really didn't do anything. I was here to see Rodger. I had no clue you guys were coming at all, much less today or I would have stayed away."

"And you hung around because?"

FP glared at him. "Really, man? What was I supposed to do? She was upset, in pain. I couldn't leave her." He crossed his hands over his chest, mocking Hal's pose. "And hell, you weren't here with her, now were you?"

"Don't," Hal said shortly. "You don't get to comment on my marriage. You don't get to play hero to my wife, bringing her root beer floats and trying to make her relive her childhood memories by, by asking her go back to that house. The one she got kicked out of, he one her father abused her in. That sound like some happy-go-lucky afternoon to you, huh?"

"I didn't ask her to go anywhere," FP hissed. The hall was empty but his eyes kept darting back and forth. The phone was ringing again, reminding Hal all too much of those calls FP had kept making to them. "I just told her the offer stood. I didn't think she'd take me up on it!"

"Well, she did. Fantastic." Hal put his hand to his temple and shook his head. "She's pregnant. She's under enough stress right now and here you are adding more to it."

"Well, look at you." FP narrowed his eyes. "Couple years in the city and you finally get up the courage to say all this stuff out loud. Must feel pretty good."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Jesus Coop. I know how I made you uncomfortable. Shit, I kissed Alice once when you were dating and you didn't say a word about it. Someone kissed my girlfriend, I would have socked them right in the jaw. Shit, Fred told you I was in love with her once and you didn't say a goddamn thing."

"And are you? Still in love with her?"

FP scoffed. "I was never in love with her."

"Bullshit."

"She was my best friend. My best friend and I had to watch you snatch her away from me. Stuff never went back to the way it was once you came into the picture, you know that?"

"Once I came in the picture? Grow the fuck up. Stuff didn't go back to the way it was when you were 14-years-old? I'd hope not. People grow up, people change."

"No one changes. Trust me."

Hal shook his head. "Sorry you feel that way. Must be awful. But trust me, I've changed, Alice has changed. And I really hope you have too." He took a chance and poked FP in the chest, really hoping it wouldn't be the last thing he ever did. "I hope you're not the guy who'd still ask a girl to stay in Riverdale with him when she has her whole life ahead of her. I hope you're not the kind of guy who'd tell her to give up college just so she wouldn't go to Boston with her boyfriend. God, FP. I really, really hope you're not still that guy."

He couldn't be certain, but he swore FP gulped. "She tell you all that?"

"I'm her husband. She tells me everything."

"Sir?" A young nurse stood behind the station now, eying both of them nervously. She extended a clipboard to FP. "Your wife's discharge papers."

Hal took the clipboard from her. "My wife, actually."

"Right." She looked between the two of them nervously. "Of course. Well, transport will be in her room in a few minutes. If you have any questions, I'll be here." She sat down behind the desk and started fiddling with some papers, clearly uncomfortable.

Hal hit the clipboard against his hand. "So I'm going to go back to my wife. You want to do some good?" Hal smirked at him as he took a few steps backwards towards Alice's room. "How about you go get her some fucking pudding."

He spun on his heel and nearly skipped down the hall. God, that had felt so good. Ten years of subtle resentment good.

A hand fell on his shoulder hard and turned him around. For a second, he was really afraid FP was going to punch him right in the middle of the maternity ward. Instead, FP just tightened his grip on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Hal." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Look, I didn't… I'm sorry what I did. I'm sorry I told everyone in school about her secret. I'm sorry I suggested for even a second that she stay behind in Riverdale. I shouldn't have gotten mad at her for leaving home and moving in with your family. That was stupid. She was better off over there with you. She always was."

Hal nodded, eyes finally breaking from him to look at the hand on his shoulder that was gripping him just a little too tight. FP let go and instead clapped him on the back, starting the walk with him back to Alice's room.

"I appreciate that, FP. I really do."

"Yeah man. I think we should have said all this years ago. I feel a lot better."

"Me too." And he actually really did.

"You know, lets run though this stupid house quick. Nothing much to see. She isn't the sentimental type." They approached Alice's room and stopped outside the door. "Then lets all go out tonight. Me and you guys, Freddy and Mary. It'll be good. Old times again."

"I don't know." The door was opened a crack and he hoped Alice couldn't hear them. "I don't know if Alice wants anyone else knowing weren't here."

"Oh." FP's face fell. "Shit. Well, I told my girlfriend. She was heading back to my apartment, so I'm sure she's told them already." He smiled and grabbed his shoulder again. "Guess you can't say no now. Mary'll show up at your folk's place and bang down the door if she doesn't see you guys. And once Fred finds out Alice is pregnant, he's never going to leave her side."

Hal sighed. "Yeah, okay. One night should be okay. If Alice isn't too tired."

"When's Alice ever too tired to go have some fun, pregnant or not?"

"What now?" The door swung the rest of the way open and Alice stood there, back in her normal clothes. She looked them both up and down through slit eyes. "Are you guys kidding? Both of you bozos promise me pudding and nothing?" She rolled her eyes. "Fill out those forms, Hal. I'll get some myself."


	8. Chapter 8

Senior Prom

"You guys can take a break, you know." Mary leaned her elbows on the stage. "We have some music ready. No one expects you guys to play the whole night."

FP strummed his guitar. The only people on the dance floor were the couple that had been swaying back and forth all night, even when nothing was playing. Even when the music was way too fast to be slow dancing. He couldn't help but feel this was Mary's way of telling them the people wanted something a little more romantic playing at their prom.

Fred read his mind. "We can slow it down if you want, Mare." His guitar was strapped to his back. He might have held it a bit during their set, but FP knew he hadn't played anything. Fred was the voice, FP was the guitar. Fred merely wore his as an accessory.

Mary smiled. "Well, I think we could do with a few slow dances, but you guys deserve a break anyway." She extended her hand to Fred. "Plus, you owe me a dance, Fred Andrews. Or seven."

Fred took her hand and made a big show of hopping off the stage, nearly landing in her arms. With Mary in heels, they were eye to eye. He pulled his strap over his head and dropped his guitar unceremoniously on the stage. FP cringed.

"You going to keep playing?" Fred asked as he linked his arm through Mary's.

"You know I don't have a set of pipes like you, Freddy." FP's eyes wandered over the gymnasium for a moment. "A break sounds good though." Behind him, their bassist and drummer were already slinking off backstage. FP let his gaze fall on the couple on the dance floor, still moving in silence.

"Just go turn the music on!" Mary shouted. Fred was already pulling her away. "Tape's already in!"

FP rolled his eyes but watched as his best friend dragged Mary to the middle of the dance floor. He spun her around dramatically as soon as they stopped and they both pulled apart dramatically. He could hear Mary's shrill giggle from the stage. They caught the attention of the other couple out there. FP expected scowls from them in their matching outfits (she in a baby blue dress and he in a light grey suit with matching blue tones), but instead they both laughed and turned back to each other. They pressed their noses together and slowly inched away from Fred and Mary.

That feeling came to him. The sick one that nestled deep in his stomach. The one that made the burger he'd had for dinner threaten to come up in a violent way.

Mary gestured at him and he went backstage and hit the switch for the sound equipment. An Eric Clapton song started playing and he knew he had about ten seconds before Fred's voice was going to travel through the curtains as he sung along unnecessarily from the dance floor. He felt in the pocket of his suit jacket for his pack of smokes and walked through the backdoor to the back of the school.

He lit a cigarette as he walked outside and leaned against the brick wall. He tried to shake the image of the dancing couple out of his head. It wasn't supposed to be like this anymore. It's not like he had expecting to just sweep in and grab her, but she wasn't supposed to be back with -

"Oh! Sorry." Hermione stood in the doorway he'd just stepped out of, purple prom dress trailing down to her knees. (He swore he could hear Fred signing something about short red hair over the lyric long blonde hair, but he tried to tune it out.) "I didn't know anyone was back here."

FP rolled his eyes. "What're do you want?"

"Same as you probably. Needed to get away for a bit." She closed the heavy fire door behind her and pursed her lips. "Hey you, uhh, you think I can bum one?" She eyed the cigarette in his hand.

"Bum one?" He exhaled and shrugged, extending the pack to her. She pulled one out and he traded hands, handing her his lighter. She raised her eyebrow before taking it and lighting her cigarette.

She took a long inhale and closed her eyes. After holding the smoke for a few seconds, she exhaled through her nose. He gave her a nod, impressed she didn't start choking. He never would have figured Hermione was a closet smoker.

"Thanks. I needed that." She tossed him the lighter and he caught it with his left hand. "But you do know you're suppose to offer to light a lady's cigarette for her, right?"

"What decade is this?"

"It's called chivalry, Jones. Contrary to popular belief, it's not dead." Her eyes and lips moved back and forth, as if she was holding something in. She tapped her heels against the concrete before finally spilling. "It's just, whenever Alice asks you for a cigarette, you do that thing, you know?" She stepped in close to him. "Where you pretend you don't have a lighter and you go in real close to light hers off yours." She blew a puff of smoke in his face, but he didn't step back. "Isn't that right, FP?"

He took a long inhale off his cigarette and blew it in her face. She coughed and took a step back.

"What's your problem?"

She shrugged. "Just bored I guess." Her eyes fixed on the light just above the door. "A little lonely too. We're in the same boat."

"I'm not lon-"

"Bullshit." She squinted up at the light. "Fred's here with Mary and I'm by myself tonight."

"Mr. Lodge too good to slum it at a high school dance?"

"Evidently." She hit some ash off her cigarette and finally met his eyes. "You couldn't take your eyes off Alice all night."

He laughed. "You're out of it."

"And you're not denying anything." She poked his chest. "Unless you were looking Hal that whole time. Probably plotting his demise. Or wondering how to get invited into bed with them. I hear they're into some kinky stuff, so just asking nicely would probably do it."

He rolled his eyes. "When you're up on stage it helps to have a focal point out in the audience. Maybe my focal point was… was somewhere in her direction - their direction. I mean they were pretty much in that same spot the whole night. They didn't even leave the floor." He scoffed. "Who the hell slow dances to Uptown Girl? We get it. They're happy, they're in love, they're -"

"Running off to Boston together."

FP dropped his cigarette. "Boston?"

Hermione's face fell. "Shit. I thought you knew. I thought everyone knew."

"What the hell is in Boston?"

"School." She shrugged. "Hal was going to turn down that scholarship since Alice was waitlisted. But she got in last week and -"

He pushed past her and walked back through the door.

"Hey!" she called after him. "You're supposed to listen to my problems now! This is why we aren't friends, you know!"

Chet and Brian, the two other guys from the band, were sitting on the beat up couch behind the curtain.

"We going back out?" Brian asked. FP didn't stop.

The dance floor had filled out now, but it was easy to make out Alice. She had cut her signature long curly hair a few months back to a shoulder length style, but she still stood out in a crowd. Looking like that, in her shimmery blue dress, it'd be hard not to. She and Hal had hardly moved the entire night from their little piece of floor.

A new song was pouring out through the speakers. FP couldn't place the name, but he recognized the tune.

Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while

He made a beeline for them.

Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies

When he came up behind Alice, Hal didn't even look up at him. His and Alice's noses were pressed together.

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst

"Hey." Neither of them looked at him. He cleared his throat and said a little louder, "Hey."

Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

They both turned to him. Alice flashing him a quick smile before letting her face fall back into the dreamy look she'd just had on. She turned back to Hal.

"Can I cut in?" he asked her. She looked back over her shoulder, smirking this time.

"What? You want a dance with Hal?"

FP didn't break his look with Alice. "Oh please. You're not my type, Coop. No offense."

"None taken," Hal laughed.

"So what do you say, Alice?" FP raised his eyebrow at her. She shook her head.

"Maybe another time, FP. I love this song."

"It's prom. You're not allowed to say no to someone at prom."

Hal took his hands off Alice's waist but she kept her hands locked around his neck. "Go ahead, Alice. I'll get you some punch."

"No." Her voice came out as a low whine. She laced her fingers and pulled his face down to hers, pressing their faces back together. "Don't leave."

Hal pecked her lips and took her hands off of him. "It's just one dance."

FP tried not to gag.

Alice watched him walk away with her eyes wide and lips pouted. When Hal was out of their sight, she turned to FP. She looked him up and down, slowly.

"Hey," she said softly. She stepped closer to him and put her hands on his shoulders, keeping as much of a distance as she could while still having a hold on him.

If that wasn't a metaphor for their entire friendship, he didn't know what was.

He put his hands lightly on her hips, trying not to think of how much they'd grown since the last time they'd danced together. He kept his eyes far away from her chest as well. Alice had never had much in that department before, but he supposed having a baby had changed her in all sorts of ways.

Fred and Mary were ten feet away or so, staring at them. They quickly looked away when FP noticed them.

"Allie? You okay?" Her head was down, eyes fixed on his chest.

Her head snapped up and she spoke more firmly. "I'm fine, FP. Are you okay? You hate dancing."

FP, not Junior. After he'd just used the nickname she hated too.

"You look a little out of it is all." He squeezed his hands against her hips. "You on something?"

Her face relaxed and the dreamy look slid back on. "I stole a muscle relaxer from Hal's mom," she whispered. "And washed it down with a swig of peppermint schnapps."

"Peppermint schnapps? Living on the edge, huh?"

Her body relaxed and she moved a little closer to him. "Do the Coopers strike you as people who keep real booze in the house? It just seemed more appropriate than taking it with milk."

"And you took it because?"

"Because I was nervous about tonight." Her gaze dropped back down to his jacket. "Last school dance we went to didn't exactly go well."

His slid one hand to the small of her back and pulled her in. "How are you, Allie? How are you really?" She took one hand off his shoulder and picked a piece of lint off his jacket as she shrugged. "It's just I've hardy talked to you since you came back. It's weird, you not being right there anymore."

Her shoulders slumped. "Don't. Come on, FP…"

"Allie."

"Junior," she snapped. "What do you want to say?"

"You're going to Boston."

"And?"

"And you didn't tell me."

She looked him in the eye. "Don't hold back now."

He dropped his voice, looking her right in the eye. "You had a baby, Allie. Then you just come back to school like nothing happened?"

"I don't owe anyone an explanation of where I was," she hissed. "Including you. All I wanted to do was finish my last few months of high school with no problems. Keep my head down, graduate. You know how lucky I am they're even letting me graduate? How hard I had to work to keep my grades when I was gone? And not just that, but I got into college. A good college. Far, far away from Riverdale."

"There are schools close by."

She scoffed. "Of course there are. But half the appeal of Boston is that it isn't close by. Four hours isn't far enough if I'm being honest." Her nails dug lightly into his jacket. "I have this image in my head, so perfect, you know? I've had it for years. We're in the Camaro and we're driving on that long road out of town. As soon as we pass the Welcome to Riverdale sign on the other side of the road, I toss my whole upper body through the window and scream until it's out of my view." She tossed her head back, short hair not making as much of a scene as it did when it was longer. "I'm going to really do it when we leave."

FP gulped. "We?"

She looked into his eyes. "Me and Hal, yeah."

"Right."

"Right." She broke their gaze again. "It's not too late for you, you know. You can tell school's you wanted to take a gap year. See if they'll let you help coach JV football when the season starts and apply to schools that offer -"

"What are you babbling about?"

"Getting you out of here too." She shook her head. "You don't need to settle for this life you were handed, can be so much more than this hodunk little town. You can be so much more than Riverdale."

"God, Allie. Do you hear yourself? I am Riverdale. You're Riverdale. You don't get to be more than this."

"And why the hell not?"

"That's not how life works, that's why the hell not."

Alice pursed her lips. "Well, you're wrong. I will be more than this. So much more. I could scrub toilets or sweep sidewalks in Boston and it'd still feel like I was doing more than I was here." She sighed. "There is nothing in this town for me anymore, you get that? Nothing. Hal's the only thing that could possibly keep me here, but he has the same idea as me. Leave Riverdale and never, ever look back."

"How could you do it, Alice?" She widened her eyes. He knew how annoyed his tone was, but he didn't care. "How could you take him back?"

"I didn't take him back," she said slowly. "I mean, I never broke up with him. We were just apart."

"You told him to do whatever he wanted when you were away."

"So? That doesn't mean we were broken up." She smiled. "Although I do appreciate all your feeble attempts to get him laid. Thanks for that. Part of me wants to think you were just testing him, but a bigger part of me thinks you hated seeing him sad and didn't know a better way to cheer him up."

"That's me alright," FP sighed. "Awesome friend."

"You are though." She offered him a lopsided grin. "And he never gave in, huh?"

"No, Allie. He never cheated on you."

"Pity," she laughed. "We haven't had sex since before I left."

FP squirmed. "Why?"

"Well, you can't right away, after… after you know. And now, well, I need to teach him a lesson somehow. I think I'm waiting until we're gone for good, you know? Like we're reinstating our virginities or something." Her eyes rolled back. "Plus, Mrs. Cooper made us do this stupid thing where we went to church and vowed to never have premarital sex again." Her eyes bugged out. "Not like that's the reason. God no, I decided -"

"Would you stay?" he cut her off, desperate to change the subject. "Like if you had a good enough reason, would you stay here?"

Her eyes pierced his. "Like what?"

"Like me asking you."

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

She clicked her teeth. "Are you asking me to stay?"

His lips formed a tight line. He nodded.

So many adventures given up today  
So many songs we forgot to play  
So many dreams swinging out of the blue  
Oh let it come true

Her voice was soft and shaky when she finally spoke. "No, FP. I'm really sorry, but no. You're not a reason to stay."

"Right." He nodded, looking away from her. He could see Hal and Hermione standing on the edge of the dance floor, holding plastic cups of punch. "Well, I just thought I'd ask. Can't fault a man for that." He let go of her hips but she tightened her grip on his shoulder.

"You don't get to do that, you know," she said slowly. "You don't get to put me in this position and make me feel guilty that it's not you."

"If you feel guilty that's your own problem."

She yanked his shoulders, fire in her eyes now. "No, it's not. The only problem here is the one where you seem to think there's this big on going competition between you and Hal. So please get it through your thick skull that there isn't, okay? It's not you. It was never going to be - hey!"

He shoved her hands off his shoulders and walked away. He braced himself for her yelling over the soft tune, but it never came. The old Alice never would have let him leave without getting the last word.

Forever young  
I want to be forever young

Hal gave him a quizzical look as he passed him and Hermione. He took one of the cups from Hal's hand and kept walking.

"Thanks, Coop," he muttered, downing it and heading for the gymnasium doors. He'd let Fred deal with hauling their equipment back to the van.

Do you really want to live forever  
Forever young


End file.
